Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador to Slovenia Nguyen Trung Kien had working sessions with representativesof the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and agencies on November 22 and 23 to discuss measures to promotecooperation between the two countries.  

During a meeting with Ambassador Igor Jukic, director general in charge of multilateral diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kien thankedthe ministry for coordinating with the Vietnamese side to arrange a meeting between President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Slovenian President Borut Pahoron the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in September thisyear.

The Vietnamese diplomat expressed his hope that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will support and coordinate with the Ministry of Economic Developmentand Technology to accelerate the ratification of theEU – Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

He suggested the Slovenian Ministry of ForeignAffairs to coordinate with its Vietnamese counterpart in organising a political consultation in 2022 and creatingconditions for the two sides to discuss orientations for promoting cooperation betweenthe two foreign ministries in the coming time.

Regarding cooperation at multilateral forums, Kienthanked Slovenia for supporting Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao's re-election tothe United Nations International Law Commission in the 2023-2027 term and forbacking Vietnam to join the Executive Board of the UNEducational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO) in the 2021-2025 term.

Jukic affirmed that cooperation between Vietnam and Sloveniaover the past time has witnessed remarkable results despite the impacts of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

He highly valued Vietnam'scontributions to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in the 2014-2016 term andrevealed that Slovenia will run for a seat in the UNHCR in 2023-2025.

At his meeting with representatives of the authority of the Port of Koper,Kien said that with its advantages in terms of geographical location andpreferential services, the Port of Koper will be a potential destination forVietnamese goods in the near future.

He proposed the port’s authority to coordinate with the Ministry of Economic Developmentand Technology and theChamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Slovenia toinclude the content of logistics cooperation at the port in the agenda of the third session of the Inter-governmental Slovenia–Vietnam Commission for economic-trade and scientific-technological cooperation which was scheduled to take place in 2022.

On this occasion, a seminar on the possibility of logisticscooperation through the Port of Koper was organised, attracting many Slovenianlogistics service providers, Vietnamese enterprises andimporters of Vietnamese goods in the Slovenia and Austria markets./.