Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan has affirmed that Vietnam wants tointensify and deepen its traditional friendship with Macedonia in linewith its consistent foreign policy of diversification andmultilateralisation.

Meeting Macedonian PrimeMinister Nikola Gruevski on December 2, Vice President Doan informed thehost of the outcomes of her talks with President Gjorge Ivanov earlieron the day.

Both sides shared the view that thetwo countries’ bilateral political ties and coordination at multilateralforums have grown remarkably, but economic cooperation has yet to matchtheir potential.

They agreed to consider theestablishment of an inter-governmental committee for economiccooperation and expand ties in education and training, culture andtourism with the possibility of signing agreements on partnership inthese fields.

On the same day, the VietnameseVice President also met with President of Macedonia’s Assembly TrajkoVeljanovski, who described her visit as a new milestone in the twocountries’ relations, especially in the context of the 20thanniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.

Heconfirmed that the legislature always backs the Macedonian government’spolicy of strengthening ties with Vietnam in all fields, particularlypolitics, economics, culture and education.

He suggested setting up friendship parliamentarians’ groups in both countries to enhance legislative cooperation.

On this occasion, Vietnam and Macedonia signed an agreement oneconomic cooperation and another on visa exemption for diplomatic andofficial passport holders.-VNA