Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Source: VNA)
Berlin (VNA) – Vietnam’s consistent policy is to
consider Germany its leading important and trusted partner in Europe and hope
to deepen the bilateral strategic partnership, affirmed Prime Minister Nguyen
Xuan Phuc while meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin
on July 6.
The German President spoke highly of the achievements
Vietnam has made during its socio-economic development, confirming that Germany
always attaches importance to consolidating and developing its friendship and
cooperation with Vietnam – a partner with an increasingly important role in the
Asia-Pacific region.
Both sides expressed their delight at positive growth in the
bilateral relations in the fields of politics-diplomacy, trade, investment,
development cooperation, education-training, labour-vocational training, and
science-technology.
Germany has been Vietnam’s leading trade partner in the
European Union for years, with two-way trade reaching 9 billion USD last year.
It is also the fifth biggest EU investor in Vietnam with a total registered
capital of 1.4 billion USD.
President Steinmeier said that there is great potential for
bilateral cooperation, considering a free trade agreement between Vietnam and
the EU is about to be signed and the German House in Ho Chi Minh City will be
put into use in the third quarter of 2017.
PM Phuc expressed his hope that Germany will encourage its
businesses to intensify investments in Vietnam, especially the fields that it
has strength and Vietnam has demand such as processing, manufacturing, clean
energy, and food industry.
The PM pledged that Vietnam will create as open and
favourable environment for foreign investors, including those from Germany.
The two leaders agreed to make joint efforts to turn the
Vietnam-Germany University into a leading training and research establishment
in Vietnam and the region, in order to train internationally-recognised
engineers who can meet Vietnam’s development requirements in the fourth
industrial revolution.
They reached a consensus on boosting technology transfer and
cooperation in fields of Germany’s strength such as wind power, information
technology and communications, and manufacturing.
Discussing several regional and international issues of
shared concern with Phuc, President Steinmeier affirmed that Germany supports
maritime freedom in the East Sea, and the settlement of disputes by peaceful
means on the basis of international law, especially the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 and the Declaration on the Conduct of
Parties in the East Sea.-VNA