Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) hosts Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob in Hanoi on March 21.

Malaysian PM leaves Hanoi, concludes Vietnam visit

Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob and his entourage left Hanoi on March 22, ending their March 20-22 official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of the Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

During his stay, the Malaysian Prime Minister held talks with the Vietnamese Prime Minister and witnessed the exchange of cooperation documents between the two countries.

He paid a courtesy visit to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and met with State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

Both sides highly appreciated the strong and substantive development of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Malaysia in recent times.

They affirmed their commitment to deepening political and economic cooperation by promoting and maintaining regular high-level contacts, consolidating existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation (JCM) and Joint Committee on Trade (JTC).

They agreed to continue working closely for the effective implementation of their signed agreements, including the Vietnam – Malaysia Plan of Action for implementation of the Strategic Partnership for 2021 – 2025.

The leaders emphasised the importance of steadily promoting a strong, balanced and sustainable two-way trade striving towards the target of US$18 billion by 2025 with a view to having balanced trade between both countries.

Notably, the two sides agreed to speed up the negotiation of a new bilateral aviation agreement and welcomed the early completion of an agreement on mutual recognition of vaccine certificates.

While staying in Hanoi, the Malaysian Prime Minister also had meetings with some typical Vietnamese businesses, and the Malaysian community in Vietnam, according to the VOV.

Both countries issued a joint press statement on Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob’s visit to Vietnam.

Promoting Vietnam-Malaysia cooperation

Vietnam and Malaysia share common interests and stances on many regional and international issues, including the East Sea/South China Sea issue. The two sides have strengthened coordination and cooperation at multilateral organisations and forums, especially the United Nations, ASEAN, and APEC, as well as in free trade agreements that the two countries are participating in, such as CPTPP and RCEP.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in August 2019. (Photo: VGP)

The official visit to Vietnam by Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is an important foreign affairs activity, demonstrating the strong commitment of the two countries in strengthening the friendship and strategic partnership, towards recovery after the pandemic.

Welcoming the Prime Minister of Malaysia demonstrates the foreign policy of the 13th Party Congress and the consistent foreign policy of Vietnam with the priority given to fostering relations with neighbouring countries and countries in ASEAN.

During the visit, on the basis of the fine relationship between the two countries, the leaders of Vietnam and Malaysia will discuss the cooperation in many fields, such as politics-diplomacy, economy, defence -security, labour, culture, education, technology and others, reported the Nhandan.

May the Malaysian Prime Minister’s official visit to Vietnam be a great success, contributing to strengthening political trust, deepening the Strategic Partnership and multifaceted cooperation, and making the two countries' relations to become more substantive and effective.

Malaysian PM Meets Vietnam's Top Leaders Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob met several high-ranking officials on his two-day visit to Vietnam.

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