(VOVworld) – Vietnam always attaches great importance to promoting its traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with the Czech Republic, said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh during his Czech Republic visit at the invitation of Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek. Minh paid a courtesy visit to Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek, held talks Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaoralek and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation between the two foreign ministries, and worked with Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mladek. He visited the Vietnam Embassy and met with Vietnamese community representatives in the Czech Republic.
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| Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek sign a MoU. (Photo: VNA) |
During talks, Czech leaders showed their belief in Vietnam’s important role in regional peace and development, saying that the Czech Republic always considers Vietnam its important partner in Southeast Asia.
The two sides reached consensus on ways to strengthen bilateral relations, particularly in politics, economy, trade, education, security, and defense. They expressed pleasure at strong, effective coordination between the two countries at international forums and pledged closer links in the future.
Regarding the East Sea issue, Foreign Minister Zaoralek asserted that Czech supports Vietnam’s pursuit of peaceful dispute settlement in conformity with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Minh thanked the Czech Government for recognizing the Vietnamese community as the 14th ethnic minority of the Czech Republic and asked it to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese there. The Czech Foreign Minister hoped that local Vietnamese will continue to promote their role as a bridge linking the two nations.