PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) shakes hands with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on November 4 evening wrapped uphis three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of his Vietnamesecounterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
During his stay in Vietnam, PM EdouardPhilippe held talks with PM Phuc and paid a courtesy visit to GeneralSecretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and PresidentNguyen Phu Trong.
He also met with Chairwoman of the NationalAssembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi MinhCity Nguyen Thien Nhan and Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen DucChung.
The French leader visited the Presidential Palacerelic site and attended a ceremony to inaugurate a new facility of France's International School Alexandre Yersin in Hanoi.
He also visited the A1 Hill relic site and laid a wreath at the Dien BienPhu martyrs’ cemetery in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, andattended ceremonies to inaugurate the French medical centre and open theFrance-Vietnam technological business forum in HCM City.
In the spirit of mutual understanding and trust, both sides discussed measuresto bolster their bilateral ties and international and regional issues of mutualinterests. They affirmed their determination to boost ties after five years ofsigning the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership (2013-2018) and 45 years ofdiplomatic relations.
They reached consensus on promoting collaboration in developing e-governmentand modernising state administrative management - a new cooperation field fullof prospects. Also, they were concurred to deepen cooperation in culture, and joinhands to ensure the successful organisation of the 11th conferenceon cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities slated for April 2019in Toulouse.
In addition, they agreed to enhance coordination at multilateral forums likethe United Nations (UN) and the Francophonie, while continuing to support eachother in developing relations between France and Asia-Pacific countries aswell as between Vietnam and the EU.
Thetwo sides agreed to increase meetings at all levels, while upholding the roleof bilateral coordination and cooperation mechanisms in the fields of politics,economy, defence, science-technology, culture, and education-training.
Theyalso underlined the need to encourage their enterprises to foster business andinvestment connection in fields of French strength and Vietnam’s demand such asinfrastructure 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 pillarin their bilateral relations, stressing that it is necessary to fostercooperation and accelerate the implementation of key cooperation projects aswell as work together to step up the Vietnam-European Union ties.
On the occasion, the two PMs witnessed the signing of cooperation agreementsbetween the nations across fields, including those in training, e-Governmentdevelopment, health care, climate change adaptation, and environmentalprotection, provision of Airbus aircraft, urban management and energy.-VNA
VNA
