Opening up space for cooperation in the Middle East - Africa region

According to the special correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, successfully concluded their official visits to Kuwait and Algeria, attended the G20 Summit and held bilateral activities in South Africa. The working trip opened up and revived the space for cooperation between Vietnam and countries in the Middle East - Africa region.

Báo Tin Tức•25/11/2025

Photo caption — Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds talks with Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al Sabah. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

In all three countries, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, received a very respectful and warm welcome, demonstrating the importance of traditional relations, as well as the desire to strengthen and promote relations with Vietnam.

During the 9-day working trip, including travel time, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a busy and highly effective working schedule with about 80 activities. During this time, the Prime Minister had meetings and talks with most of the highest-ranking leaders of Kuwait, Algeria, and South Africa.

The special result of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to Kuwait, Algeria, and South Africa is that all three countries agreed and announced upgrading their relations with Vietnam to a Strategic Partnership. These are also the first three countries in the Middle East and Africa with which Vietnam has a Strategic Partnership; opening a new chapter for the traditional and potential relationship between Vietnam and not only the three countries but also the entire Middle East and Africa.

Upgrading relations with countries to Strategic Partnership reflects high political trust; expanding the scale and scope of cooperation in all fields, especially economic cooperation, investment, culture, science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, education and training. In particular, economic cooperation is identified as the basis for promoting bilateral relations to become more in-depth, substantive and effective. As the Prime Minister affirmed, upgrading relations with countries helps "strengthen solidarity and cohesion to create strength; promote cooperation to create benefits; increase exchanges of high-level and local delegations to consolidate trust and mutual understanding".

Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung said that Vietnam's upgrading of relations to Strategic Partnership with Kuwait, Algeria, and South Africa, along with political and economic relations, shows that all three countries are very willing to strengthen defense and security cooperation with Vietnam. Along with that, the three countries are ready to be the gateway for Vietnam to strengthen relations with the Middle East - Africa region, through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of which Kuwait is an important member or the African Union of which South Africa and Algeria are countries with important positions in relations with other countries.

During the working trip, the Prime Minister had meetings with officials and businesses of various countries; attended economic and business forums. On this occasion, Vietnam and these countries signed more than 10 cooperation agreements in specific fields; Vietnamese and foreign businesses also signed cooperation agreements to promote trade and investment in the coming time. These are the first agreements to realize the new cooperation framework - Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and the three countries.

Through specific programs and projects, Vietnam and the three countries not only exploit more deeply traditional cooperation areas but also promote new cooperation areas such as: mining; exploration, exploitation, oil refining; energy, agriculture; science, technology, innovation, digital transformation; aviation, tourism, people-to-people exchange, etc.

Mr. Do Ha Nam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Intimex Group Joint Stock Company, said that during the Prime Minister's working trip, Intimex signed the largest contract ever with an Algerian partner on coffee export, with 24,000 tons/year, worth 110 million USD. In addition, many customers asked to meet and work with Intimex to continue to be able to sign the next contract not only for consumption but also to supply to countries around the Algerian region.

With the viewpoint that the relationship between Vietnam and Kuwait, Algeria and South Africa has an important common core value of mutual support and assistance in the struggle for national independence and unification, it is necessary to promote this heritage in building and developing the country today and in the future so that each country becomes richer, more civilized, prosperous and happier, and the people of each country become happier and more prosperous, during the working trip, in the countries, the Prime Minister had many activities such as: giving policy speeches, participating in cultural activities; visiting economic and social establishments of the three countries...

General Secretary of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) Abdelkrim Benmebarek said that Vietnam's struggle for national independence against colonialism has been a source of inspiration for peoples around the world to rise up and escape oppression. After meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the Algerian President strongly directed ministries, branches and organizations to immediately implement specific tasks, bringing to life the agreements signed by the two sides, including the cooperation agreement between the FLN and the Communist Party of Vietnam; determined to realize what their ancestors and previous revolutionary generations of the two countries wished for.

Meeting with the Vietnamese community in all three countries, witnessing the sentiments of the people always yearning for and turning towards their homeland and country, the Prime Minister respectfully thanked the people for their feelings towards their homeland and country; affirmed that the "national love and compatriotism" of the people as well as many other Vietnamese people at home and abroad are invaluable assets of the country; the Party and State have issued many policies to create favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to have the opportunity to turn to their roots and develop in the most favorable way.

Notably, despite his busy schedule, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh still regularly directs domestic work, including chairing two online meetings from Algeria and South Africa with the country to direct the work of overcoming the consequences of floods that are causing serious consequences in the central provinces, including a meeting at night local time.

One of the focuses of the Prime Minister's working trip is to attend the G20 summit in South Africa - the conference is attended by senior leaders of G20 member countries, 20 guest countries and 21 leaders of international and regional organizations.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered important speeches at the meetings, making proposals to promote rapid and sustainable development for peace, friendship, cooperation and progress in the world, while sharing with international friends about Vietnam's situation, development path and the efforts Vietnam has made.

Speaking at an important discussion session with the theme: “Sustainable and inclusive economic development - leaving no one behind” and “G20 contributions to a resilient world”, with the motto “unity for strength - cooperation for benefits, dialogue for trust”, the Prime Minister proposed 3 strategic guarantees to promote inclusive and sustainable growth and leave no one behind.

Speaking at the Workshop themed “A fair and just future for all”, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh welcomed South Africa’s choice of the theme “Strategic minerals, sustainable jobs and artificial intelligence”, which reflects the three major movements of the world today: green transformation, digital transformation and demographic-labor transformation.

To contribute to creating a fair, equal and just future for countries and people around the world, the Prime Minister shared three strategic priorities: building a fair, equal, stable, transparent strategic mineral partnership with “harmonized benefits and shared risks”; creating a breakthrough in training high-quality human resources associated with developing a modern, effective and sustainable job market; building and developing an artificial intelligence ecosystem for humans, not replacing humans.

With the motto of "listening and understanding together; believing and acting together; developing and enjoying together", the Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam is ready to cooperate closely with G20 and the international community to implement the above strategic priorities through specific and practical cooperation programs and projects, contributing to bringing prosperity to countries and all people.

Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said that by attending this Conference, in addition to making a common contribution to a very important international event, in line with foreign policy, demonstrating that Vietnam is an active and responsible member of the international community as stated in the Draft Report to the 14th National Party Congress, Vietnam will proactively and positively contribute to solving common problems, Vietnam will also have more conditions to seek cooperation from multilateral institutions, including 20 international organizations.

On the occasion of attending the G20 Summit, the Prime Minister met with more than 30 leaders of countries and international organizations to discuss and promote bilateral relations. In particular, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of countries and international organizations discussed each specific issue, program and project.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to Kuwait, Algeria and South Africa was a great success; continuing to effectively implement the foreign policy according to the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, Resolution No. 34-NQ/TW of the Politburo on a number of major orientations and policies to implement the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress and Resolution No. 59-NQ/TW of the Politburo on international integration in the new situation, Conclusion No. 125-KL/TW of the Secretariat on promoting and elevating multilateral diplomacy to 2030.

The results of the working trip are an important basis, a driving force, a source of inspiration, contributing to the ministries, branches and localities across the country to continue realizing their determination and aspirations for development; attracting maximum international resources to serve the country's development goals in the new era.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chinh-tri/khoi-mo-khong-giant-hop-tac-o-khu-vuc-trung-dong-chau-phi-20251125075238379.htm