Vietnam and the Philippines will promote sea and ocean cooperation, enhance information sharing and coordinate closely in timely handling issues arising at sea, including combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The agreement was reached at the 10th meeting of the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation between Vietnam and the Philippines co-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Philippines Enrique Manalo, in Hanoi on August 2.
The two sides agreed to increase high-level visit exchanges in the coming time, especially a visit to Vietnam by Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and at the same time effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including meetings of the Joint Permanent Working Group on Maritime and Ocean Concerns (JPWG-MOC), the Joint Sub-Committee on Trade, the Joint Working Group on Agriculture, the Joint Working Group in the fisheries sector.
They pledged to draft an Action Program to implement the Strategic Partnership for the 2025-2030 period, strengthen defense - security cooperation, and strive to soon raise two-way trade turnover to US$10 billion soon, with a primary focus on rice trading.
The two sides also consented to ramp up cooperation in other important fields such as agriculture, culture, tourism, education, transportation, science - technology, environment, and people-to-people exchanges.
They vowed to further coordinate and support each other at multilateral forums, especially at ASEAN and the United Nations, while underlining the need to maintain the unity and central role of ASEAN and promote the grouping’s sub-regional cooperation, contributing to building a strong and prosperous community.
Secretary Manalo assured his host that the Philippines always attaches great importance to consolidating and developing the friendly, cooperative and multi-faceted relations with Vietnam, the Philippines’ only strategic partner in ASEAN.
The two ministers signed the minutes of the meeting and agreed to hold the next meeting in 2025.
On this occasion, Secretary Manalo respectfully invited Minister Son to visit the Philippines at an appropriate time.
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