French PM visits Vietnam
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe enjoyed a three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc. During his stay in Vietnam, PM Edouard Philippe held talks with PM Phuc and paid a courtesy visit to President Nguyen Phu Trong.
The leaders discussed measures to bolster their bilateral ties, international and regional issues of mutual interests. They affirmed their determination to boost ties after five years of signing the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership (2013-2018) and 45 years of diplomatic relations.
The French leader also visited the Presidential Palace relic site and attended a ceremony to inaugurate a new facility of France’s International School Alexandre Yersin in Hanoi.
They reached consensus on promoting collaboration in developing e-government and modernizing state administrative management – a new cooperation field full of prospects. Also, they agreed to deepen cooperation in culture to ensure the successful organization of the 11th conference on cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities slated for April 2019 in Toulouse.
In addition, they agreed to enhance coordination at multilateral forums like the United Nations (UN) and the Francophonie, while continuing to support each other in developing relations between France and Asian-Pacific countries as well as between Vietnam and the EU.
The two sides agreed to increase meetings at all levels, while upholding the role of bilateral coordination and cooperation mechanisms in the fields of politics, economy, defence, science-technology, culture, and education-training. They also underlined the need to encourage their enterprises to foster business and investment connection in fields of French strength and Vietnam’s demand such as infrastructure development, energy, aerospace, health, science-technology, communication, climate change adaptation and smart city development.
They affirmed that economic cooperation would continue to be a priority pillar in their bilateral relations, stressing that it is necessary to foster cooperation and accelerate the implementation of key cooperation projects as well as work together to step up the Vietnam-European Union ties.