Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan had a meeting with the UK’s Minister of
State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Hugo Swire, in Seoul on
February 26 on her working visit to the Republic of Korea.
During their talks, Doan expressed her hope that the UK , as one of
the key members of the European Union (EU), will lobby the EU to
recognise Vietnam as a market-based economy.
As
the UK is also a key shareholder in the World Bank (WB), Vietnam
hopes the UK will influence the bank to offer further development
assistance loans to Vietnam , she said, adding her wish that the UK
will continue to channel Official Development Assistance (ODA) to
Vietnam from areas of the UK ’s strength such as finance,
petroleum-chemistry and science-technology.
Doan
also expressed her wish that the UK will soon cooperate with Vietnam
to build the UK-Vietnam University in central Da Nang city,
adding that her side wants the UK to serve as an important bridge
between the EU and ASEAN, in which Vietnam holds an important
position.
Hugo Swire said he hopes the two sides
will make all efforts to elevate the bilateral strategic partnership to a
higher level, and propel bilateral cultural and economic cooperation in
the time to come.-VNA