Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son. (Photo: Baoquocte)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Don Pramudwinai co-chaired the fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Thailand Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), which was held via videoconference on Nov. 19.

At the meeting, the two sides reviewed and assessed cooperation results in the recent past and discussed orientations to deepen the bilateral collaboration across all fields.

They noted with satisfaction that the Vietnam-Thailand enhanced strategic partnership has been thriving on the foundation of mutual respect, understanding, and benefit, according to VNA.

Thailand remains Vietnam’s largest trading partner in ASEAN and ranks ninth among foreign investors in Vietnam. Two-way trade between the two countries reached more than US$15 billion over the past 10 months, a year-on-year rise of 18%.

Both countries have maintained cooperation in other important fields such as defense - security, education and training, culture, tourism, finance, and banking. They have also organized many activities to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2021.

Pramudwinai affirmed that Thailand always attaches importance to and wishes to further promote the enhanced strategic partnership with Vietnam.

The two ministers agreed that Vietnam and Thailand will continue working closely to beef up the exchange of delegations and bilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially the joint Cabinet meeting between the two Prime Ministers at a time suitable for both sides.

They agreed that the two countries will strengthen mutual understanding through teaching Thai in Vietnam and Vietnamese in Thailand while expanding exchanges between their friendship parliamentarians groups, according to VOV.

The two sides highly appreciated their mutual support and assistance in Covid-19 prevention and control and stressed the need to strengthen public health cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including research and development of vaccines and drugs to treat Covid-19. They consented to early recognize their vaccine passports, and facilitate the travel of their citizens in the new normal.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai co-chair the 4th meeting of the Vietnam - Thailand Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation in an online format. (Photo: Baoquocte)

The sides also agreed to step up economic connections and maintain the supply chain to facilitate the flow of goods; refrain from imposing trade barriers on each other’s products; and strive to bring bilateral trade to 25 billion USD in a more balanced manner.

Son asked Thai retailers to continue upholding their role in promoting Vietnamese goods to consumers and called on Thai businesses to invest in fields that they boast strengths in while Vietnam has a strong demand for.

Vietnam and Thailand agreed to seek cooperation possibilities in new fields of growth and further support each other at international and regional forums, as well as capitalize on opportunities and interests brought by new-generation free trade agreements.

At the meeting, the two ministers exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, the two sides emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, as well as for settling disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

They voiced support for serious and complete implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and negotiations to achieve an effective, substantive, and appropriate Code of Conduct in the waters (COC) in line with international law, including UNCLOS.

The ministers adopted the meeting’s minutes and pledged to work together to promote the realization of collaboration areas stated in the minutes.

They also inked a memorandum of understanding between the two foreign ministries and witnessed the signing of an MoU between the countries’ culture ministries in 2021-26 and another on the establishment of a partnership between Thua Thien Hue of Vietnam and Ubon Ratchathani province of Thailand.

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