President Luong Cuong holds talks with Sri Lankan President

In an atmosphere of openness, sincerity, trust and mutual understanding, President Luong Cuong warmly welcomed Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayaka to visit Vietnam; assessing the visit as having important significance, taking place on the occasion of the two countries celebrating the 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.

The President thanked President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka for accepting the invitation to attend and deliver the opening speech at the United Nations Day of Vesak held in Vietnam, as well as sending a congratulatory letter to Vietnamese leaders on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification.

President Luong Cuong and President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka.

The President congratulated Sri Lanka on its important economic and social achievements since the new President and Government took charge of the country, especially its recovery from the crisis, maintaining positive economic growth, and improving the national credit rating; expressing his belief that Sri Lanka will overcome difficulties to successfully achieve its development goals in the future.

The President thanked Sri Lanka for supporting Vietnam in the past struggle for national independence and for closely cooperating with Vietnam in the current national construction.

President Luong Cuong and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation at the talks.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka expressed his pleasure in visiting Vietnam, the first Southeast Asian country to visit after taking office, and expressed his admiration for Vietnam's impressive development after 50 years of the Liberation of the South and national reunification. Vietnam has risen to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with GDP ranking 32nd in the world, and playing an important role and position in the region and the world.

The President said that the leaders and people of Sri Lanka always have warm friendship for Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh; admire Vietnam's indomitable fighting spirit during the war as well as in national construction, and wish to learn from Vietnam's development experience.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and the Sri Lankan high-level delegation at the talks.

The two sides agreed that high political trust, warm friendship, sincere support between the two countries and the sharing of common visions and viewpoints are the foundation for bringing bilateral relations to new heights.

In that spirit, the two sides agreed to continuously consolidate the traditional friendship and mutual understanding, promote more frequent high-level visits, enhance cooperation between the two ruling parties, exchanges between people's organizations and friendship solidarity associations of the two countries; improve the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms, especially the Joint Committee on Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, to review and propose specific cooperation measures; amend, supplement, and promote the signing of cooperation agreements in accordance with the new situation, and study the possibility of upgrading relations when conditions are sufficient and agreed by both sides.

The two sides agreed to promote more substantive defense, security, and justice cooperation, encourage increased exchanges and interactions, expand training cooperation, enhance capacity, coordinate in preventing and combating transnational crimes, cybercrime, and law enforcement, and consider signing defense, security, and justice cooperation agreements.

President Luong Cuong and President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka led high-ranking delegations from the two countries for talks.

The two leaders shared that the potential for economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries is still very large, and breakthrough measures are needed to exploit it effectively; agreed to promote the signing of economic, trade and investment cooperation agreements; facilitate the opening of strong goods of one country to access the other's market, aiming to diversify the supply chain, strive to achieve the target of bilateral turnover of 1 billion USD and further increase two-way investment.

The President of Sri Lanka affirmed that he will create favorable conditions to encourage Vietnamese enterprises to invest in strategic areas of high demand in Sri Lanka such as infrastructure, telecommunications, education, healthcare, high-tech agriculture, agricultural and food processing, retail, logistics, tourism, etc.

The two sides agreed to further expand cooperation in important areas such as agriculture, food security, science and technology, education, culture, religion, health, tourism, and people-to-people exchange; increase sharing of experience in developing the marine economy, maritime transport, and maritime connectivity; and encourage airlines of the two countries to consider opening direct flights.

The President of Sri Lanka agreed to continue creating favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live, study and do business in Sri Lanka, including Vietnamese monks and nuns to participate in studying Buddhism, and to encourage Vietnamese pagodas, meditation centers and Buddhist establishments in Sri Lanka.

President Luong Cuong and President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperation documents between ministries and sectors of the two countries.

The two leaders agreed that in the context of complex changes in the world and the region, the two countries will continue the tradition of close coordination and mutual support at international and regional organizations, especially at the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, South-South cooperation, as well as on issues of mutual concern.

The two sides reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation; stressed the importance of respecting and complying with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982). President Luong Cuong welcomed Sri Lanka to further enhance its substantive cooperation with Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN.

On this occasion, President of Sri Lanka Anura Kumara Dissanayaka respectfully invited President Luong Cuong to visit Sri Lanka in the near future. President Luong Cuong happily accepted the invitation.

After the talks, President Luong Cuong and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka witnessed the signing of five cooperation documents in the fields of diplomacy, trade, customs, agriculture and machinery manufacturing.

News and photos: NGUYEN TUAN - THAI HUNG

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Source: https://baodaknong.vn/chu-tich-nuoc-luong-cuong-hoi-dam-voi-tong-thong-sri-lanka-251529.html