Rio de Janeiro (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with a host of world leaders and head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 6 on the sidelines of the expanded BRICS Summit.

At a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, PM Chinh congratulated India on its recent achievements and growing role on the global stage, particularly within the BRICS bloc. PM Modi, in turn, described Chinh as a close friend of India.

In discussions with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, PM Chinh expressed Vietnam’s desire to boost bilateral cooperation and conveyed an invitation from Vietnamese leaders to Tinubu to visit Vietnam soon. President Tinubu affirmed Nigeria’s strong interest in enhancing ties with Vietnam, calling the country a key partner in Southeast Asia.

Both leaders agreed to advance economic, trade, and investment ties while reinforcing collaboration in other potential fields like energy, mining, sustainable resource management, infrastructure development, and climate change response.

Separately, PM Chinh met with Ugandan Vice President Jessica Rose Epel Alupo, affirming Vietnam consistently attaches importance to its friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Uganda, and views the latter as a priority partner in Africa.

Alupo lauded Vietnam’s socio-economic progress and called for deeper economic and trade ties, particularly in agricultural processing, coffee production, and mining. She invited Vietnamese companies to invest in these areas in Uganda. Both leaders also agreed on concrete steps to advance the countries' partnership.

In a conversation with First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Uzbekistan Sodiq Solihovich Safoyev, the Government leader stressed Vietnam’s wish for stronger friendship with Uzbekistan, and invited Uzbekistani leaders to visit Vietnam in the near future.

Safoyev, in response, expressed interest in a near-term visit and stressed the need for more high-level exchanges to bolster relations.

The Vienamese leader also hosted Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, with both sides reaffirming the principles and major orientations for deepening the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

They agreed to effectively realise the agreements reached during the Russia visit by Party General Secretary To Lam in May, focusing on all-level mutual visits, coordination in investment, trade, transport, e-commerce, labour, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, tourism, and people-to-people exchange.

During his meeting with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, PM Chinh affirmed that Vietnam highly values the WTO’s pivotal role in advancing global trade liberalisation, and its ongoing reform aimed at improving its operations in a changing global environment.

Okonjo-Iweala prai൩sed Vietnam’s active engagement within the WTO framework and its consistent stance on global integration, appreciating the country’s support for the WTO's central role in p🤪romoting the multilateral trading system./.