Paris (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung is paying aworking visit to France from October 26-28 to seek measures to continuecementing ties between Vietnam and France.

During his trip, Dung had workingsessions with Minister of Environment François de Rugy, and CEO of the FrenchDevelopment Agency (AFD) Rémy Rioux, paid a courtesy visit to Vice President ofthe Senate Philippe Dallier, and received representatives from several Frenchgroups and companies.

The Deputy PM also worked withofficials of the French Prime Minister Office to prepare for PM ÉdouardPhilippe’s upcoming visit to Vietnam.

During the meetings, both sidesstressed that the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership has developed stronglyover the past years. Currently, France is the only European nation Vietnam hascooperative mechanisms in all fields, ranging from politics, security, defenceto economy, science, culture and education.

Together with the official visitto France by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam CentralCommittee Nguyen Phu Trong in March 2018, the upcoming visit by PM Philippe manifeststhe trust and closeness between senior leaders of the two countries. During theFrench PM’s visit, the two sides expect to sign different agreements ondigitalization, health and communications.

The two sides affirmed their wishesto improve the efficiency of existing mechanisms to intensify bilateralrelations at all levels. They agreed that economic cooperation is a prioritypillar in the bilateral strategic partnership, but needs to be fostered tomatch fine political ties.

They vowed to continue supportingthe implementation of economic cooperation projects, and creating favourable conditionsfor the two countries’ enterprises to step up business connectivity in thefields of health, agriculture and aerospace.

Dung urged the French Governmentand Senate to early complete necessary procedures to officially sign a freetrade agreement (FTA) and an investment protection agreement (IPA) between theEuropean Union and Vietnam in late 2018 and ratify them in early 2019, so as torealise huge benefits of the EU-Vietnam FTA.

The Deputy PM said that hewelcomed and hoped France will has a stronger voice in supporting thesettlement of disputes in the East Sea by peaceful measures, upholding thesupremacy of law in seas and oceans as well as ensuring security, safety andfreedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea.

At his meetings with EnvironmentMinister François de Rugy, and CEO of the AFD Rémy Rioux, Deputy PM Dung appreciatedFrance’s assistance to Vietnam through AFD aid worth over 2 billion EUR (2.28billion USD) for 80 projects that has helped Vietnam implement green growthgoals and Paris Agreement commitments.

The French officials promised toexpand cooperation with Vietnam in different fields such as environmentalprotection, disaster prevention and control, and natural resources developmentand protection, and support Vietnam in making policies to adapt to climatechange and drawing scenarios to seek measures to mitigate climate changeimpacts.

Receiving leaders of Total andAir Liquide Groups and Aaquius company, Dung encouraged them to continueexpanding investment in Vietnam in the fields of renewable energy and greendevelopment to help the country carry out international commitments to climatechange adaptation.-VNA