National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man welcomes Malaysian House of Representatives Speaker Tan Sri Dato' Johari Bin Abdul. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

While in Vietnam, the Malaysian leader paid respects to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum, held talks with National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, and met with Party General Secretary To Lam and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

During the visit, the Vietnamese leaders said Vietnam values and aims to strongly promote its strategic partnership with Malaysia, seeking to make the relationship more practical and effective, with the goal of elevating the ties to new heights. The National Assembly of Vietnam is ready to create favorable conditions for cooperation between the two nations. Both sides should enhance collaboration in investment, technology, tourism, trade, and energy, thereby expanding trade opportunities and maximizing each other's comparative advantages.

Both sides concurred to increase all-level delegation exchanges, and effectively implement existing cooperation mechanisms and agreements. They said the nations will strive for their bilateral trade goal of 18 billion USD, while making efforts to facilitate imports-exports and minimize trade barriers.

They reached agreements on mutual support for training Vietnamese localities and businesses in Halal production and certification processes, the facilitation of Malaysia’s import of Halal products from Vietnam, and the early signing of a Halal cooperation pact. The sides said they will explore the possibility of establishing direct flights between their popular destinations, facilitating trade and tourism. Enhanced collaboration in human resources, focusing on fields like science, technology, information technology, economy, and educational management was also agreed upon.

The two sides said they will work with other ASEAN member states to maintain the bloc’s stance on the East Sea issue, promote the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the waters (DOC), and negotiate a substantive and effective Code of Conduct (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Malaysia agreed to support the Vietnamese community in the country in terms of residence, employment, education, so that they can contribute to Malaysia’s development as well as to the bilateral relationship.