PM chairs welcome ceremony for Dutch counterpart
Hanoi
(VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a welcome ceremony for his
visiting Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte in Hanoi on November 2 morning.
This visit, which is
taking place when Vietnam and the Netherlands are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (1973-2023), is the third by the Dutch
PM to Vietnam since he took office in 2010, following PM Chinh’s visit to the
Netherlands nine months ago.
After the welcome
ceremony, the two PMs enjoyed a photo exhibition featuring the land and people
of Vietnam and the growing Vietnam-Netherlands relations before their
talks.
Over the past 50
years, the Vietnam-Netherlands relationship has developed strongly across all
fields, especially investment, trade, sustainable agriculture and climate
change response.
The two sides
established their Strategic Partnership on Climate Change and Water Management
in 2010, Strategic Partnership on Agriculture and Food Security in 2014 and
Comprehensive Partnership in 2019.
Along with conducting
the regular exchange of delegations, especially at high level, the two sides have
maintained many bilateral cooperation mechanisms and supported each other at
international forums and organisations.
The Netherlands is
one of Vietnam’s leading important and time-tested partners. It is currently
Vietnam’s biggest investor in the European Union with combined capital of 13.5
billion USD in about 400 projects, and the largest importer of Vietnamese
products in Europe, with two-way trade surpassing 11 billion USD. The
Netherlands has provided non-refundable aid to many development projects and
programmes in Vietnam.
PM Rutte’s visit aims to seek specific measures to realise outcomes of PM Chinh’s
visit earlier this year, while promoting bilateral cooperation in trade, investment,
finance, science and technology, management science, human resources training,
tourism, agriculture, logistics, green transition, and digital transformation.
Alongside, Vietnam
and the Netherlands will continue to discuss ways to effectively implement the EU-Vietnam
Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and further promote the development of the EU -
ASEAN strategic partnership for peace, stability, and development of the region
and the world./.