Affirming Vietnam's responsible contributions and paving the way for new opportunities for cooperation and development

Prime Minister and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and heads of delegations attending the Conference - Photo: VGP

During his two days in Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conducted nearly 30 activities with diverse content and forms, achieving many specific results in all aspects, together with ASEAN countries demonstrating a new mindset of independence, solidarity, development, and expanding relations with countries and regional organizations in the world to mobilize resources to build the Community, promote recovery, sustainable development, and create a favorable environment for dialogue and cooperation; at the same time, paving the way for new bilateral cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia in particular, GCC member countries in general, as well as consolidating and strengthening bilateral relations between Vietnam and ASEAN countries.

Vietnam's historical milestones and responsible contributions

This is the first time since the establishment of relations in 1990 that ASEAN leaders met with GCC leaders, creating a historic milestone in bilateral relations and adding new momentum to ASEAN-GCC cooperation, for peace , stability and prosperity of both regions and the world.

The ASEAN-GCC Summit has special significance and has achieved the set goals with many important results ; through the Joint Statement, reflecting the results of the discussions of the Senior Leaders and setting out directions for further development of ASEAN-GCC relations in the coming time.

Firstly, both sides affirmed their respect for each other's role and position, and pledged to strengthen and deepen relations and cooperation on an equal and mutually beneficial basis.

Second, ASEAN and the GCC emphasized the need to effectively exploit the remaining space and potential for cooperation between the two sides, agreeing to coordinate and promote cooperation in the fields of politics-security, economics, culture-society and development cooperation. In particular, some priority areas are trade, investment, supply chain assurance, connectivity, maritime cooperation, energy security, food, Halal industry, innovation, culture, tourism, labor, climate change response, energy transition, green development, etc.

Third, the two sides agreed to strengthen multilateral cooperation, promote dialogue and cooperation, build trust, respect the rule of law, respect independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference in each other's affairs, join hands to resolve regional and global challenges, and effectively contribute to peace, security, stability and sustainable development.

The countries expressed concern over recent developments in the Gaza Strip, calling on all parties to immediately cease fire, end the use of force, respect international humanitarian law, resume negotiations, and resolve disagreements through peaceful means, on the basis of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit - Photo: VGP

The Vietnamese delegation participated proactively, actively, and made important and responsible contributions to the overall success of the Conference . Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered an important speech, highlighting the significance of the Conference, opening up great expectations for both sides to work together to bring the relationship to a new height for peace, cooperation and mutual development.

According to the Prime Minister, Southeast Asia and the Gulf have been linked together for centuries on the basis of good friendship and great potential for cooperation. The faster the world changes, the more ASEAN and the GCC must adapt dynamically, join hands to arouse the will to be self-reliant, unleash development resources, implement practical and effective actions, with the highest political determination, and take drastic actions so that the cooperation process between the two regions can truly make a strong breakthrough in the coming time, becoming a bright spot of regional and global cooperation.

The Prime Minister proposed the following three orientations:

Firstly, ASEAN and the GCC together create more favorable conditions for economy, trade and investment to become the main pillars and driving force connecting the two regions, complementing each other for mutual development and mutual victory.

The two sides need to implement more open policies, open markets more strongly, remove barriers, and build more complete and sustainable supply chains to create conditions for GCC investment funds and businesses to further expand their business investments in ASEAN and for ASEAN goods and services to appear more and more in the Gulf.

In that process, ASEAN and Vietnam wish to work with the GCC to promote cooperation for the goal of greener and more sustainable development. Accordingly, the two sides need to prioritize cooperation in developing green economy, digital economy, circular economy, sharing economy, sustainable agricultural development, energy transition, etc.

The Prime Minister emphasized the need to promote three connections: One is connecting people, culture, and labor; two is connecting trade, investment, and tourism; three is connecting infrastructure, through strategic infrastructure investment.

Second, it is necessary to quickly institutionalize ASEAN-GCC cooperation through regular, substantive and effective cooperation mechanisms in each specific field.

Third, strengthen multilateral cooperation to jointly maintain a peaceful and stable environment for development. With the strength of being highly successful regional organizations, ASEAN and the GCC need to support each other to promote their central role, making practical contributions to peace, stability and development in the two regions and the world.

The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam strongly opposes all acts of use of force and calls on relevant parties to immediately end acts of violence against civilians, humanitarian facilities and essential infrastructure; believes that only negotiation and mediation, resolving disagreements through peaceful means, reaching a two-state solution on the basis of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council is the only way to bring sustainable and long-lasting peace to the Middle East and all countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds talks with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Strengthening relationships, opening up new opportunities

The visit to Saudi Arabia is the first official visit of a Vietnamese Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia , creating an important premise for the two countries to strengthen political trust and open up new cooperation opportunities. At the same time, this is also an opportunity to strengthen relations with all Gulf countries, a region with a total GDP of up to 2,200 billion USD, if considered as a single economy, it would rank 8th in the world.

With large revenues from oil and gas, GCC countries own the world's leading large investment funds such as the UAE Investment Authority (estimated assets of 850 billion USD), the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (estimated assets of 620 billion USD), the Public Investment Fund (estimated assets of 170 billion USD) and are the target of many countries in attracting investment capital.

The Prime Minister's working trip has created a breakthrough in seeking new cooperation opportunities, expanding the market for Vietnamese goods and services in Saudi Arabia and the GCC market, especially in attracting investment capital, expanding trade, energy conversion, sustainable growth, skilled labor, developing the Halal industry, exporting agricultural and aquatic products and tourism.

Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed that the two sides are each other's top important partners in the two regions and there is still much potential and opportunity to further develop the friendship and cooperation for the common interests of the two peoples; agreed to continue to consolidate the good political and diplomatic relations through further strengthening the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level delegations, promoting cooperation to open markets, and promoting trade and investment.

The two sides agreed to work together to develop a cooperation roadmap, identify specific investment projects and fields as well as business opportunities between businesses of the two countries, determined to promote cooperation between the two governments and between the two business communities, contributing to bringing the relationship between the two countries to a new height, towards the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2024.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh gives an interview to financial news channel Asharq Economy with Bloomberg about the country's "Vision 2030" Strategy - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

During meetings with Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the country's "Vision 2030" Strategy, saying that the two countries' strategies, visions and development orientations until 2030 have many similarities, especially breakthroughs in socio-economic development, development mainly based on science and technology, innovation, prioritizing digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, climate change response, etc.

On the occasion of the visit, the two sides signed five cooperation documents in the fields of justice, diplomacy, crime prevention and control, tourism and trade promotion, thereby perfecting the legal framework and favorable cooperation conditions for the two countries in the coming time.

Prime Minister receives leaders of three leading corporations of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Also during his visit to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received the Minister of Economy and Planning, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, attended the Vietnam-Saudi Arabia Business Forum, received leaders of the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi Arabia Development Fund, and leaders of leading corporations in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf such as Aramco, Zamil, Lulu, Ajlan & Bros. These are large corporations with revenues of billions and tens of billions of USD, especially Saudi Aramco is the world's largest oil and gas corporation and has held the position of the company with the largest capitalization value globally at many times.

The Prime Minister witnessed the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between federations, companies and agencies of Vietnam and Saudi Arabia - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

In order to open up investment capital to Vietnam, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has committed to devoting more resources to major infrastructure development projects in Vietnam. The giant Aramco wants to study the market and seize opportunities to invest in Vietnam, especially in the construction of oil refineries. Many other large Saudi Arabian corporations have affirmed that they will consider expanding their investment activities in Vietnam in areas such as steel, pre-engineered steel, retail, agriculture and clean energy and hope to expand their business networks to ASEAN countries through Vietnam.

Saudi Arabia is an important labor market for Vietnam in the Middle East; at its peak, nearly 18,000 Vietnamese workers were present there and currently there are about 5,000 people. The Prime Minister asked Saudi Arabia to increase the reception of Vietnamese workers, especially in the context that Saudi Arabia is implementing many large urban and infrastructure projects... in the process of implementing the "Vision 2030" Strategy; at the same time, continue to create conditions for Vietnamese citizens to do business and live in Saudi Arabia, contributing to the development of Saudi Arabia as well as being an effective bridge for the friendship between the two countries and peoples.

Saudi Arabia said it plans to increase the number of foreign workers by 10 million in the coming time, highly appreciates the quality of the Vietnamese workforce, and expressed its hope that both sides will work together to resolve problems and send more Vietnamese workers to Saudi Arabia.

The Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - Photo: VGP

Promote key areas of cooperation with partners

During the visit, the Prime Minister had bilateral meetings with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

At the meetings, the Prime Minister and leaders discussed directions and solutions to continue promoting bilateral relations, especially in key areas such as strengthening Vietnam-Laos economic connectivity, promoting key transport infrastructure projects connecting sea, air, road and railway routes, transforming Vietnam-Laos economic cooperation in quality; promoting the realization of the idea of ​​tourism cooperation "one journey, three destinations" between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; promoting negotiations and signing of the Agreement on rice trade cooperation between Vietnam-Philippines and Vietnam-Indonesia; discussing the possibility of establishing a Vietnam-Singapore industrial park association and promoting the supply of clean electricity from Vietnam to the Singapore market.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the GCC Secretariat headquarters and witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the GCC Secretariat - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the GCC Secretariat and witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the GCC Secretariat with the message that Vietnam is ready to be a bridge between ASEAN and the GCC; and had bilateral meetings with leaders of GCC member countries including Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Prince and Deputy Prime Minister of Oman Sayyid Shihab bin Tarik Al Said, demonstrating the determination to promote Vietnam's cooperation with these countries in a deeper, more substantive and effective manner.

Leaders of GCC countries highly appreciated the role and position of Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific region, agreed that the potential for cooperation between the two sides is still very large and are ready to work with Vietnam to promote bilateral relations to a new stage of cooperation, further promote all-round cooperation with Vietnam, especially in the fields of economy, trade, investment, especially the activities of large investment funds of these countries, promoting the success of the Vietnam-Oman Joint Investment Fund as a typical model for investment cooperation between Vietnam and the Gulf countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with officials, staff of the Embassy and the Vietnamese community in Saudi Arabia - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Also during the visit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took the time to meet and encourage the staff of the Embassy and the Vietnamese community in Saudi Arabia, affirming that the Party and State always protect the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Vietnamese, wishing them a peaceful and happy life, with increasingly improved material and spiritual life; requesting the Embassy to closely monitor the situation and developments in the region to advise the Party and State leaders and do a good job of protecting citizens in all situations, together with overseas Vietnamese to promote the tradition of patriotism, love for the nation, especially solidarity, sharing, and timely mutual support in times of difficulty and adversity.

The Prime Minister's working trip contributes to implementing the foreign policy of the 13th National Congress, Directive 15 of the Secretariat on promoting and elevating multilateral foreign relations to 2030: Independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, diversification, multilateralization; sending a message of strong commitment and responsible contribution of a friendly, sincere, trustworthy Vietnam, ready to strengthen friendly relations, dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation, building a peaceful and stable regional and international environment with other countries.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/khang-dinh-nhung-dong-gop-trach-nhiem-cua-viet-nam-va-mo-duong-cho-nhung-co-hoi-hop-tac-phat-trien-moi-364805.html