Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (L) and Indonesian President Joko Widodo meet in Hanoi on Friday. VNA photo
HANOI – Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính had a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Hanoi on Friday, during which the leaders highly evaluated the strong and dynamic development of the two countries’ cooperation in multiple areas.
Welcoming his guest, Chính said Widodo’s state visit to Vietnam held special significance and would create new momentum for bilateral ties after over 10 years of their strategic partnership and ahead of the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2025.
Widodo affirmed that Vietnam was a partner of strategic importance of Indonesia in the region.
Both leaders shared the view that the strategic trust between their countries had been increasingly reinforced via frequent high-level mutual visits and meetings. The bilateral cooperation in such fields as security-defence, maritime affairs, agriculture, fisheries, education – training, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges had recorded a number of positive results.
Economic and trade cooperation was a bright spot of the bilateral relations. Indonesia registered over $1 billion in investment in Vietnam during January – November 2023, up 37% year on year. It was the third largest ASEAN trading partner of Vietnam, which in turn ranked fourth among trading partners of the former in the region, with bilateral trade approximating $13 billion in the 11 months, statistics showed.
To create a new impetus for the bilateral relations, the two leaders agreed to consider lifting the Vietnam – Indonesia strategic partnership to a new level. They agreed to continue increasing delegation exchanges and meetings at all levels, effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms and signed high-level agreements and documents, and soon build an action plan for 2024 – 2028 that suits the new context.
They also concurred in working together to raise the bilateral trade to $15 billion and even $18 billion by 2028, facilitate and encourage the two countries’ businesses to invest in each other’s markets, and expand cooperation to new areas such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, green economy, renewable energy, and electric vehicle (EV) and EV battery ecosystem.
The two sides would also expand cooperation programmes within the framework of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), enhance ties in the Halal industry, boost connections in ensuring food security, and promote the signing of a deal on rice trading.
Chính and Widodo affirmed that both would foster ties in other important fields such as defence, security, maritime affairs, the settlement of common sea-related challenges, fisheries, and the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
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