Bucharest (VNA) – Vietnamese PrimeMinister Pham Minh Chinh met with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest on Jaꦏnuary 22 as part of his official visitto the European nation.

President Iohannis welcomed PM Chinh’svisit, considering it a milestone in promoting traditionalfriendship and cooperation between Romania and Vietnam. While hailing Vietnam's role in the Asia-Pacific region, he affirmedthat Romania always considers Vietnam its most important partner in Southeast Asia and wishes to further developcooperative relations with Vietnam in all sectors. PM Chinh, for his part, affirmed that inits foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisationof external ties, Vietnam always attaches importance to and wants to foster its relationswith traditional friends in Central and Eastern Europe, with Romania being a prioritypartner. He conveyed Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's regards and President Vo Van Thuong's invitation to visit Vietnam to President Iohannis. The two leaders expressed their delight at thepositive development of the bilateral relations across various fields. They agreed to continue increasing the exchangeof delegations at all levels through the Party, State,Government, National Assembly, and people-to-people diplomacy channels. President Iohannis unveiled his intent to visit Vietnam in thenear future to maintain high-level dialogue between leaders of bothcountries. Lauding the positive progress in bilateral economic and trade tiesdespite the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and regional instability, they pledgedto continue rolling out existing economic cooperation mechanismsand encourage Romanian enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam, particularly inareas of Romania’s strength such as informationtechnology, oil refining, food processing and renewable energy. The host proposed closecoordination to effectively implement the agreements reached during PM Chinh'svisit while fully tapping the potential and opportunities to further strengthenbilateral cooperation in the fields of education-training, labour, culture,tourism, and people-to-people exchanges. The two leaders agreed tocontinue supporting each other atmultilateral forums and international organisations, and in joint efforts toaddress global challenges, thus contributing to peace, cooperation and developmentin the region and the world. Discussingcurrent hotspots around the globe, they concurred that all conflicts anddisputes should be settled through peaceful means, without using or threatening to use force, and in accordance withinternational law. On the occasion,PM Chinh thanked Romania for providing support for the Vietnamese community and hoped that they would be provided with more favourable conditions to settle down, integrate deeper into the host society and make positive contributions to the socio-economicdevelopment of Romania as well as the enduring friendshipbetween the two nations./.