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| National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (R) welcomes President of the Belgian Senate Stéphanie D'Hose in Hanoi__Photo: VNA |
President of the Belgian Senate Stéphanie D'Hose on August 29 concluded her nine-day visit to Vietnam, which was made at the invitation of Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
During his stay, D'Hose paid a courtesy call to President Vo Van Thuong, and had a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. She held talks with NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and had a working session with Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son.
She also visited the central provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City, while touring some projects conducted under the cooperation between Vietnam and Belgium.
Stéphanie D'Hose is the highest-ranking guest from Belgium that Vietnam has welcomed in 2023 when the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations and five-year strategic partnership in agriculture. This is a chance for the two sides to discuss orientations and measures to strengthen bilateral friendship and cooperation, including ties between the two legislatures.
During her visit, leaders of the two sides agreed to speed up cooperation programs and projects in areas of education, investment, climate change response, digital transformation, and green economy, while increasing people-to-people exchange and cultural activities, thus fostering understanding and bonds between the two countries' people.
Vietnam thanked Belgium for supporting Vietnamese people during the past struggle for independence and the present national construction and development.
The two sides agreed to optimize advantages from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to bring two-way trade to USD 7 billion in the next 2-3 years. EVFTA is one of the achievements in economic cooperation between Vietnam and the EU in general and Belgium in particular. They highly valued the establishment of the bilateral strategic partnership in agriculture.
Leaders of the two legislatures spoke highly of the significance of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). NA Chairman Hue suggested that the Belgian parliament speed up the process of ratifying the EVIPA.
Vietnam and Belgium also concurred to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, including those from parliament committees, friendship parliamentarians’ associations, women and young parliamentarians' groups.
The two countries will also promote the consultation mechanism and support each other at multilateral parliamentary forums, while coordinating with each other in realizing sustainable development goals and supervising the implementation of agreements signed between the two Governments, and supporting and hastening the cooperation among localities and businesses of the two countries.-(VNA/VLLF)
