Ottawa (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Nguyen Duc Hai had courtesy meetings with Speaker of the Senate Raymonde Gagne and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada Greg Fergus in Ottawa on October 1.

Hai is leading an NA delegation on a working visit to Canada to discuss cooperation in the new green economy, digital transformation, urban planning and management, and budgetary affairs to serve law making in Vietnam. The trip also aims to help boost ties between parliamentary agencies as well as mutual visits between the two countries.

At the meeting with Gagne, Hai said Vietnam treasures relations with Canada and wishes to join hands with the latter to promote the comprehensive partnership on the basis of mutual benefits, thus contributing to peace, stability, and prosperous development in Asia-Pacific and the world at large.

The Vietnamese official applauded Canada’s policy of enhancing cohesion with the world and the region, especially the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which shows the importance this North American nation attaches to the centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He considered this as a favourable prerequisite for both sides to foster the bilateral relations.

Expressing her sympathy for Vietnamese people on the heavy impacts of Typhoon Yagi, Gagne noted Canada is one of the first countries to provide emergency aid, worth 560,000 CAD (nearly 415,200 USD), to help residents in northern Vietnam to address consequences of the strongest storm in 70 years.

Talking with Fergus, Hai thanked Canada for assisting Vietnam to overcome the typhoon’s aftermath and called for more support in climate change response and help with increasing people’s living standards.

Fergus said he attaches importance to Canada’s comprehensive partnership with Vietnam and highly values the latter’s role in ASEAN.

He also appreciated contributions by the Vietnamese people in Canada, describing them as one of the model communities helping with cultural diversity in the country.

The bilateral relations have been growing well, especially in trade, which soon reached the revenue target of over 10 billion USD. The figure stood at 6.3 billion USD in the first seven months of 2024, up 9% year on year. In particular, Canada’s exports to Vietnam surged by over 26% during the period, statistics showed.

As a result, Canada has become one of the most important trading partners of Vietnam, ranking second in the Americas after the US. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the biggest trading partner of Canada in ASEAN and also a gateway for Canadian companies to enter Southeast Asian as well as Asia-Pacific.

Member of the House of Commons Shaun Chen, who is also Chairman of the Canada - Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group, held that the two sides could bolster trade and improve existing cultural and social links, the core of which is the strength of the ties between the two nations' people, who have helped consolidate economic, cultural, and social bonds between the countries./.