Vietnam wants to deepen comprehensive cooperation with Spain: Party chief

Vietnam wants to deepen comprehensive cooperation with Spain, a key member and a gateway to the EU, Party General Secretary To Lam told visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at their meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday.

Highlighting the significance of the first-ever visit by a head of the Spanish government since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the Party chief believed that the visit will serve as a catalyst to elevate the bilateral Strategic Partnership to a new height, fostering prosperity and mutual benefits for both nations while contributing to peace, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

While sharing PM Sánchez's assessments of the world's current economic situation, he affirmed Vietnam’s pursuit of a policy of self-reliance, overcoming challenges by diversifying markets with regions around the world, including the EU and Africa.

It is also promoting the development and application of sci-tech, while increasing trade exchanges with partner countries and traditional friends, including Spain, Lam said.

Spanish PM Sánchez, in response, highly valued Vietnam’s role and position in the region and the world, as well as in Spain’s foreign policy, affirming that Spain is ready to serve as a bridge to further strengthen Vietnam-EU relations and expects to upgrade the bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The PM highlighted the similarities and complementary nature between the Spanish and Vietnamese economies, pledging to urge EU nations to soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

He also suggested Vietnam send a delegation to Spain to learn its experience aimed at prompting the European Commission to soon remove its IUU yellow card warning against Vietnamese seafood.

Both sides agreed to reinforce cooperation in the fields of national defence-security, agriculture, and education-training, while also exploring promising fields like innovation, artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and digital transformation.

Lam stressed the importance of boosting cooperation in sci-tech and transport which are the strengths of Spain that meet Vietnam’s needs. He also noted that cultural and tourism exchanges hold great potential, given the rising number of Spanish tourist arrivals to Vietnam.

PM Sánchez, representing a country with the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, said Spanish firms are keen to join Vietnam’s infrastructure and railway projects.

On the multilateral aspect, PM Sánchez praised Vietnam's efforts for the settlement of global issues and welcomed Vietnam’s hosting of the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit in April, confirming that Spain would send representatives to the event.

Both sides stressed that Vietnam and Spain need to continue coordinating closely at multilateral forums and international organizations, promoting multilateralism and respect for international law to address regional and global challenges, especially amid rapid and complicated changes around the world, including the East Sea issue.

Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held talks with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez, who is on a three-day official visit to Vietnam. Chinh expressed his belief that the visit opens up a new chapter in bilateral ties, elevating the Vietnam-Spain Strategic Partnership to new heights.

Vietnam attaches importance to and wishes to further strengthen multifaceted cooperation with Spain – the first strategic partner of Vietnam in the EU, he stated.

The Vietnamese leader emphasized similarities in geostrategic locations, rich cultural tradition and history, and hospitable people between the two countries, saying that these serve as catalysts for deepening comprehensive cooperation across multiple areas, from politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, to strategic fields such as defence-security, science-technology, infrastructure, renewable energy, and sustainable development.

PM Sánchez showed his impression of Vietnam’s strong economic growth in recent times, particularly the Southeast Asian nation’s efforts to advance breakthroughs in science, technology, and national digital transformation.

He affirmed that Vietnam is one of Spain’s top priority partners in ASEAN and that the European nation desires to further step up comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam - a proactive and responsible member in the Asia-Pacific region.

He also noted the growing interest among Spanish businesses and tourists in visiting Vietnam and exploring opportunities for investment and trade, especially in areas of railway and urban metro systems, energy, and aviation.

The two leaders engaged in in-depth discussions on major orientations for cooperation, aiming to deepen the Vietnam-Spain Strategic Partnership in a more substantive, practical, and effective manner.

They tasked their respective Ministries of Foreign Affairs with continuing coordinating efforts to promote bilateral ties, and exploring potential areas of cooperation that could pave the way for upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership in the time to come.

After PM Sánchez talked about the current challenges and difficulties of the world economy and measures to respond to trade tensions, PM Chinh stressed that the Vietnamese Government is upholding its guiding principles of being “calm, resilient, flexible, and creative,” and pursuing a policy of “avoiding confrontation, and persisting in dialogue.”

He added that Vietnam is restructuring its economy toward a green and sustainable model to proactively respond, and enhance its internal capacity and resilience against external shocks that may impact the country's overall development.

The host affirmed that the country is implementing various financial and fiscal support policies, as well as ensuring seamless infrastructure, transparent institutions, and smart governance to reduce input costs, improve competitiveness of domestic businesses, and maintain a stable, safe, and transparent investment and business environment, thus providing a solid foundation for long-term investment and business of foreign companies in Vietnam. PM Chinh said Vietnam is focusing on diversifying markets, products, and supply chains.

Both sides aim to convene the inaugural session of their joint economic, trade, and investment committee this year to unlock their economies' full potential and complementary strengths, with the goal of surpassing $8 billion in bilateral trade.

The Spanish PM called on Vietnam to ease non-tariff administrative procedures and open its market further to Spanish agricultural and poultry products, promoting balanced trade growth. Sánchez expressed appreciation for Vietnam’s continued visa exemption extension for Spanish citizens, fostering tourism, cultural exchanges, and people-to-people ties.

Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in education, culture, sports, and tourism, as well as in sustainable agriculture, localitity-to-locality and people-to-people partnerships, human resource development, and defence-security collaboration.

Areas of focus include defence industry cooperation, counter-terrorism efforts, transnational crime prevention, UN peacekeeping missions, and war legacy resolution in Vietnam. In addition, Vietnam and Spain will explore joint work in emerging fields such as science and technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and digital transformation.

PM Chinh proposed exploring the possibility of a direct flight route between Vietnam and Spain to boost tourism and people-to-people exchanges. He also welcomed the progress in bilateral cooperation on child adoption.

On this occasion, PM Sánchez extended an invitation to his Vietnamese counterpart to visit Spain for further discussions on strengthening bilateral strategic partnership. PM Chinh accepted the invitation and requested the two foreign ministries coordinate to arrange the visit at a mutually convenient time.