At the reception (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
On June 7, Minister Son received Italian Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Manlio Di Stefano who is visiting Vietnam from June 7-9.
Minister Bui Thanh Son welcomed Deputy Minister Manlio Di Stefano's visit to Vietnam and expressed his delight at the development steps of the Vietnam-Italy strategic partnership in recent years.
Affirming that Vietnam attaches great importance to the development of the strategic partnership with Italy, Minister Bui Thanh Son suggested the two sides step up trade and investment cooperation activities, and expand to areas such as response with climate change, infrastructure, agriculture, food security and human resource training.
The Minister suggested that Italy support Vietnam in accessing finance and technology to fulfill its commitments at COP26; coordinate with Vietnam to effectively implement the EVFTA Agreement and soon ratify the EVIPA Agreement for the benefit of the business communities of the two countries.
Expressing his honor at visiting Vietnam for the first time, Mr. Manlio Di Stefano highly appreciated the close cooperation of the two countries, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the maintenance of leaders' exchanges of high-level and bilateral cooperation programs.
The Italian official discussed the results of the 7th meeting of the Vietnam-Italy Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation, and affirmed that economic cooperation continues to be a priority in bilateral cooperation, committing to increasing trade and investment in Vietnam, Italy's leading important partner in ASEAN.
The two sides agreed to effectively implement the action program to implement the strategic partnership 2021-2023 and coordinate activities towards the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership in 2023, including the exchange of high-level delegations and cooperation programs between the ministries, branches and localities of the two countries.
Expressing his thanks to Vietnam for supporting Italy to become a Development Partner of ASEAN, Mr. Manlio Di Stefano highly appreciated Vietnam's role and contributions in ASEAN and expressed his wish that Vietnam would support Italy to promote cooperation projects with ASEAN on sustainable development, space and environment cooperation./.