On the morning of May 6, at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received French Minister of the Army Sébastien Lecornu, who is visiting Vietnam to attend activities commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked the French Minister of the Army for accepting the invitation to attend the celebration. 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory; highly appreciated the Minister's visit as having important significance in promoting the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership, affirming the efforts of both sides to "put aside the past, overcome differences, promote similarities, and look to the future", showing that Vietnam is a model of healing and recovery after the war, turning enemies into friends, and turning confrontation into dialogue.
The Prime Minister spent time sharing the fundamental factors and basic development guidelines of the country, policies on foreign affairs, economy, defense, etc.; including the "four no's" defense policy: No participation in military alliances; no ally with one country to fight another; no allowing foreign countries to set up military bases or use Vietnamese territory to fight against other countries; no use of force or threat of use of force in international relations.
The Prime Minister emphasized that having experienced much pain, sacrifice, and loss from many wars, separations, sieges, and embargoes in the last century, Vietnam loves peace and cherishes the preciousness of peace, cooperation, and development. Recalling the good impressions during his visit to France in 2021, the Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to Strategic Partnership with France and recently General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Emmanuel Macron had a phone call in October 2023; asked the Minister to convey General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's regards and invitation to French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Vietnam; at the same time, the Prime Minister hopes to soon welcome French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to visit Vietnam.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and French Minister of Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu were pleased to note the Vietnam and France, especially after 10 years of establishing the Strategic Partnership (2014-2024), have increasingly developed well on the basis of "fate" and connections in many fields, from history, culture, architecture, people to cooperation in politics, economics, education, national defense and security, Covid-19 prevention...
The Prime Minister affirmed that defense cooperation is one of the important pillars in the Vietnam-France Strategic Partnership. France is the first Western country to establish defense relations with Vietnam (since 1991); highly appreciated the results of cooperation in recent times and the results of the talks between the French Minister of the Army and the Vietnamese Minister of Defense during this visit. To further strengthen and bring the Vietnam-France relationship to a new height, in depth, more substantive and effective, the Prime Minister suggested that the two sides continue to promote delegation exchanges at all levels, especially at the high level, to prepare well for the upcoming visit to Vietnam by French President Macron; as well as strongly promote cooperation between ministries, branches and localities.
The Prime Minister suggested that the two sides promote connectivity between the two economies, two cultures, and people-to-people exchanges; cooperate in responding to climate change, energy transition, developing digital economy, green economy, and circular economy; build transport infrastructure projects, including removing obstacles, promoting the Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station metro project and railway projects; cooperate in sustainable exploitation of seas and oceans; cooperate in research and transfer of science and technology; continue to coordinate and support each other at international and regional forums, participate in solving global and national issues...
The Prime Minister asked France to support and urge EU countries to soon ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and the EC to soon remove the yellow card on Vietnam's seafood exports based on Vietnam's efforts in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU). In the field of defense, the Prime Minister suggested continuing to effectively implement existing agreements and establishing new cooperation mechanisms, especially in information and experience exchange, human resource training, defense exhibitions, peacekeeping, overcoming the consequences of war, mine clearance, searching for missing people, etc.
In particular, the Prime Minister asked the French side to strengthen cooperation to preserve, restore and promote the value of the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield relic, especially in sharing archival documents about this relic.
For his part, Minister Sébastien Lecornu thanked the Vietnamese side for the warm welcome to the delegation; emphasizing that the French side attaches importance to the relationship with Vietnam and highly appreciates Vietnam's strong independence and autonomy. Minister Sébastien Lecornu affirmed the important significance of the first visit to Dien Bien Phu by a French Minister of the Army, following the visits to Dien Bien Phu by President Francois Mitterrand in 1993 and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in 2018.
The Minister highlighted the importance of cooperation in sharing historical memories and overcoming the consequences of war between the two countries; thanked Vietnam for actively cooperating and supporting the repatriation of the remains of French soldiers during the war in Vietnam; and affirmed that the two sides can absolutely achieve a better future of cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and international law.
The Minister said that one of the goals of this working trip to Vietnam is to contribute to the preparation for the upcoming visit to Vietnam by French President Macron, who is looking forward to visiting Vietnam to promote the substantive relations between the two countries. Sharing and agreeing with the contents mentioned by the Prime Minister, Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that he will discuss with the French authorities to promote specific cooperation projects; expressing the hope that both sides will continue to make efforts to promote defense cooperation in an increasingly deep and effective manner, commensurate with the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.
At the meeting, the two sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern. Regarding maritime issues, the two sides emphasized the importance of peace, security, stability, freedom of navigation and aviation, and the settlement of disputes through peaceful means in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and moving towards an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
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