President Tran Dai Quang holds talks with President Lukashenko

President Tran Dai Quang stated that Vietnam has always attached importance to cementing and stepping up the traditional friendship and multi-dimensional cooperation with Belarus. For his part, President Alexander Lukashenko affirmed that his country always considers Vietnam one of its important external priorities in Asia, hailing Vietnam's efforts in undertaking the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) Forum in 2017 and wishing the country to hold the APEC Year successfully. The leaders showed their delight at positive developments in the countries' cooperation across the board and asserted their resolve to strengthen and develop the bilateral traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation in a comprehensive, practical and efficient manner to serve the respective benefits. They agreed to maintain the regular exchange of all-level visits, especially high-ranking ones, to reinforce political trust along with boosting State, parliament, sector and locality links and collaboration at multilateral forums like the United Nations and the Non-aligned Movement to protect their countries' interests and security, together striving for a world of peace, stability and prosperity. The Presidents discussed and reached a consensus on an array of solutions to furthering the bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation to match the sound political ties. They noted the coordination to implement efficiently the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union and the Protocol on supporting the production of motored transport vehicles in the territory of Vietnam, with a view to making a breakthrough in the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, supporting the effort to bring two-way trade to 500 million USD in the next two years, along with studying possibilities to expand cooperation in agriculture which is still untapped by the two countries. The two Presidents said they were glad that the two countries' first vehicle manufacturing joint venture is being set up and is expected to be operating before yearend. They agreed to continue efforts to carry out cooperation programmes in the economy, science, education and culture reached for 2016-2018; to deploy efficiently defence-security affiliations; and to facilitate win-win cooperation between localities. President Tran Dai Quang hailed Belarus for organizing Belarus Cultural Days in Hanoi and Lao Cai in May and wished that both sides would conduct more cultural and sport exchange activities. The leaders shared their high estimations of efforts made by both sides in making it easy for their citizens' entry and exit and promoting tourism links. The Vietnamese President expected that Belarus will continue helping the Vietnamese community to integrate into its society and contribute actively in strengthening the friendship between the two peoples. Regarding international issues, they shared common viewpoints on many regional and global matters, emphasizing the central role of the United Nations in safeguarding international peace and security and sustainable development, and delivering their support for the organization in improving its operation efficiency. President Alexander Lukashenko asserted his backing of Vietnam's position on tackling territorial disputes, including those in the East Sea by peaceful measures without using force or threat to use force, with the participation of all sides concerned. He said he welcomes efforts to soon achieve a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). He expressed his belief that the official visit to Belarus by President Quang will surely create a new impulse to the Vietnam-Belarus cooperation to grow robustly across sectors, thus providing a solid foundation for the bilateral ties to reach a new height, meeting their people's aspiration and interest, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large. President Tran Dai Quang invited President Alexander Lukashenko to visit Vietnam, which will be arranged via diplomatic channel. Following the talks, the Presidents signed a joint statement on developing the partnership between Vietnam and Belarus intensively and extensively. They witnessed the signing of nine cooperative documents, including a Protocol on amending the Protocol between the Governments of Vietnam and Belarus on supporting the production of motored transport vehicles in the territory of Vietnam, and those covering science and technology, military technology, sport and physical training, geology, and locality cooperation.

(Source: VNA)