Meeting with the Sri Lankan envoy Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has affirmed the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Sri Lanka and sought to raise the bilateral trade between the two countries to $500 million.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc received the outgoing Ambassador of Sri Lanka Prasanna Gamage, who came to bid his farewell, in Hanoi on December 28, the official Vietnam News Agency said.
Talking to Sri Lankan Ambassador, President Phuc affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Sri Lanka.
He highly valued the diplomat’s efforts to boost cultural exchanges and partnerships in religious affairs and trade while thanking the South Asian country for supporting Vietnam’s candidacy for membership of the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-2025.
President Phuc asked the two countries to work together more closely in fisheries and agriculture, step up existing cooperation mechanisms, strive to raise bilateral trade to 500 million USD, and expand ties in investment, tourism, education-training, culture, Buddhist affairs, and people-to-people exchanges.
They should also continue coordinating within the UN and Non-Aligned Movement frameworks, the President noted, calling on Sri Lanka to keep supporting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s common stance on the East Sea issue, maintenance of peace and freedom of navigation and overflight, and compliance with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Ambassador Gamage once again thanked Vietnamese authorities for helping save and assist the 300 Sri Lankan nationals on a vessel in distress in the waters off Vung Tau in November 2022.
He underlined his country’s consistent stance on the East Sea issue and support for peace, freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea, and peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law and UNCLOS.
