Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – National Assembly (NA) Chairman Tran Thanh Man, his spouse Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, and a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam arrived in Kuala Lumpur on September 16 afternoon, starting their trip to attend the 46th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46) and pay an official visit to Malaysia.

Welcoming the delegation at the airport were Deputy President of the Malaysian Senate Datuk Nur Jazlan bin Tan Sri Mohamed, representatives of the AIPA-46 organising committee, Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia Dinh Ngoc Linh, and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy.

The top legislator’s attendance at AIPA-46 demonstrates Vietnam’s active participation and contributions to promoting AIPA's role in maintaining regional peace, stability, and cooperation, realising the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, and enhancing the bloc's centrality. It also reflects Vietnam's support for Malaysia as Chair of ASEAN 2025 and AIPA-46.

Alongside actively cooperating with ASEAN countries to promote inclusive and sustainable growth, this is also an opportunity for Vietnam to mainstream and advance its own priorities and initiatives, particularly in areas such as cybersecurity, new energy, and the digital economy, and align its development goals and priorities with those of ASEAN.

Within the framework of his trip, Chairman Man is scheduled to attend the AIPA Executive Committee meeting, participate in the joint meeting between the heads of delegations and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia, take part in the opening ceremony, and deliver an important speech at the first plenary session. He is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with the heads of delegations of other countries’ parliaments.

This is the first official visit to Malaysia by a Vietnamese NA leader since the two countries elevated ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in November 2024.

He will hold talks and meetings with high-ranking leaders of Malaysia, and meet with the embassy staff and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Malaysia.

The visit is a step to implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, thereby fostering cooperation in all fields, including politics, diplomacy, defence, security, parliament, economy, trade, investment, labour, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges, in a more substantive and effective manner.

ꦫ The trip also vividly demonstrates Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation, development, and multilateralisation and diversification of foreign relations, with priority given to Southeast Asia and ASEAN, including Malaysia – the ASEAN Chair in 2025. It also reaffirms Vietnam’s commitment to working with Malaysia and other ASEAN members to build a “sustainable and inclusive” ASEAN Community, and strengthens the bloc’s central role in the regional architecture./.