Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son received Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On the morning of April 17, at the Ministry's headquarters, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son received Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on his working visit to Vietnam.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son appreciated the UK's interest in promoting cooperative relations with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam. Vietnam-UK cooperation is in its best phase.

The UK is the European country with the most vibrant high-level delegation exchange activities with Vietnam. Two-way trade has regained growth momentum thanks to the Vietnam-UK Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA).

Trade turnover in 2023 reached US$7.1 billion, an increase of 4.4% compared to 2022.

The UK is the second largest European FDI investor investing in Vietnam with a total registered capital of more than US$4 billion.

Bilateral cooperation in fields such as responding to climate change, education and training, science-technology, and health continues to be promoted.

Minister Bui Thanh Son expressed hope that bilateral relations will continue to develop well on the foundation of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

The Foreign Minister appreciated Tony Blair's contributions during his term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007) to the relationship between the two countries.

Son said that Vietnam attaches great importance to strengthening international cooperation, mobilizing and effectively using external resources for sustainable development, especially in new strategic areas such as green economy and sustainable development, digital economy, and innovation.

In particular, regarding sustainable development, Vietnam made strong commitments to reduce emissions at COP 26 and is actively implementing it, including adopting the Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with G7 countries.

The Foreign Minister appreciated Tony Blair's contributions during his term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007) to the relationship between the two countries. Photo: WVR

Vietnam also aims to increase investment attraction from potential partners, including corporations and investment funds from the Middle East region.

Vietnam promotes extensive and substantive international integration activities and develops high-quality human resources to meet the new requirements of Industry 4.0.

Economic diplomacy is affirmed as a basic and central task of Vietnamese diplomacy, an important driving force for rapid and sustainable development of the country.

It plays a pioneering role in negotiating and implementing bilateral and multilateral economic agreements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad will support ministries, branches and localities to attract capital, investment, technology and resources for development.

Tony Blair affirmed that the British authorities are consistent in their diplomatic policy with Vietnam, wishing to promote and deepen cooperation with Vietnam, an important partner of the UK in the region. Tony Blair will continue to make efforts to contribute to the development of Vietnam-UK relations in all fields.

Blair said artificial intelligence will create rapid changes to the world economy shortly. In that context, Tony Blair believes that Vietnam has great potential to participate deeply in the global value chain in the field of digital economy.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair appreciated Vietnam's strong and practical efforts to promote sustainable growth, reduce emissions, energy transition, digital transformation, and diversify markets, and economic and investment partners.

He also said that Vietnam has a lot of potentials to promote international cooperation in attracting resources for green growth and developing renewable energy, innovation and digital economy, attracting investment from the Middle East region.

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