Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and SriLanka have agreed to maintain and intensify the exchange of all-leveldelegations of their legislative bodies, particularly special committees, inorder to share information and experience in parliamentary activities, lawmaking and supervision.

The consensus was reached by Chairwomanof the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Speaker of the SriLankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya during their talks in Hanoi on April 24. Thetalks were held following a welcome ceremony for the Sri Lankan top legislator,who is on an official visit to Vietnam from April 23-27.

The Vietnamese NA leader expressed herbelief that the visit of the Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker will help deepen thefriendship and traditional cooperation between the two countries and thecollaboration between the two legislatures.  

She informed her guest that the VietnamNA has established the Vietnam-Sri Lanka Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group.

The two sides agreed to promote the roleof the friendship parliamentarians’ groups in boosting cooperation between thetwo law-making bodies in particular and the two countries in general, whilereinforcing the legislatures’ role in monitoring and accelerating the implementationof reached agreements.

They will also step up coordination andmutual support at regional and international forums, including the IPU.

The two legislative leaders held thatVietnam and Sri Lanka should work harder to fully realise the memorandum of understandingon defence cooperation inked in 2011, promote ties in logistics and warconsequence settlement, and join hands in UN peace-keeping operations.

They called for the early implementationof the biennial security dialogue mechanism at the level of minister of publicsecurity, and more sharing of experience and information to enhance capacity offighting cross-border crimes and terrorists in order to ensure security in eachnation.

Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuria expressedhis hope for affiliation between the police academies of the two countries, and the Vietnamese NA Chairwomanalso voiced her support of the partnership.

Regarding economic ties, the twolegislative leaders took note of the growth in bilateral trade, which reached nearly320 million USD in 2017, saying Vietnam and Sri Lanka have substantialpotential for cooperation, especially in oil and gas, infrastructure,information and communications technology (ICT), garment-textile, rubber, leatherand footwear, farm produce processing and distribution, seafood, dairy productionand consumption, renewable energy, and aviation and maritime transportation.

NA Chairwoman Ngan urged the two sidesto effectively materialise documents signed during the official visit toVietnam by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in April 2017, andsuggested amending and signing new documents to respond to the new situation.

She called for the second meeting of thejoint trade subcommittee to be held early in Vietnam in order to seek measuresto remove bottlenecks hindering the bilateral trade, towards raising two-waytrade revenue to 1 billion USD.

The Vietnamese chief legislator alsoproposed increasing investment promotion and trade connectivity, saying the twosides should seek ways to effectively implement the agreement on investmentpromotion and protection as well as the cooperation minutes on enhancingbilateral investment.

Host and guest agreed on the need to paymore attention to aviation links, considering this a strong and effectivesolution to facilitate trade and tap the tourism potential of both sides.

The Sri Lankan parliament speakerpledged to help Vietnam with technologies in farming sea cucumber and seaweed,and aquaculture, while calling on Vietnam to share experience and experts inagriculture.

Echoing his guest’s views, NA ChairwomanNgan said the two sides should support each other and avoid competition inproducts they both have strength like tea, coffee and seafood.

During their talks, the leaders alsodiscussed a number of regional and international issues of shared concern.

Regarding the East Sea issue, Nganstressed that maintaining peace, stability, security and safety of aviation andmaritime in the East Sea is the common interest of countries in and outside theregion.

Vietnam advocates the settlement of disputesin the East Sea by peaceful measures, in line with international law, includingthe 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), with fullrespect for diplomatic and legal processes as well as legitimate and legalrights and interests of concerned parties, while making efforts to preservepeace and stability in the sea, she said.

The chief legislator appealed to SriLanka to support the stance of Vietnam and the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN), especially in principled matters such as aviation andnavigation freedom, international law observance and peaceful settlement ofdisputes.

NA Chairwoman Ngan is hosting a banquet for the Sri Lankan parliament speakerand his entourage later the same day.-VNA