VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh yesterday, July 1, continued to have bilateral talks with his counterparts from Singapore, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Australia, and the Vice President of the European Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh meets Timor Leste's Foreign Minister Jose Lui Guterres.

The meetings took place on the sidelines of the 46th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-46) in Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan.

Talking with his Singaporean counterpart K Shanmugam, Minh congratulated Singapore on the success of the Shangri-La Dialogue, held in the country on May 31.

Shanmugam said he highly valued Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's attendance at the event.

The Singaporean guest announced that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would visit Viet Nam in September and the two countries would sign a statement on establishing a strategic partnership on the occasion.

Meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, Minh affirmed that Viet Nam treasured and hoped to improve its friendship and multifaceted co-operation with Malaysia.

Both sides expressed pleasure at the positive developments in their economics, trade and investment co-operation and hoped to organise the fifth meeting of the Joint Committee on economic, scientific and technological co-operation soon.

At the meeting with Timor Leste's Foreign Minister Jose Lui Guterres, the two ministers said they hoped to increase bilateral co-operation in a wide range of fields, particularly in oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, information technology and telecommunications.

Receiving Bangladesh's FM Dipu Moni, Minh agreed with his counterpart on the need to increase the exchange of high-ranking visits.

At the meeting with Mongolia's FM Luvsanvandan Bold, the two sides agreed to work closely together to implement practical measures to mark the 60th anniversary of Viet Nam-Mongolia diplomatic ties and expand development co-operation for each country's mutual benefit.

In a separate meeting, Minh and Australia's FM Bob Carr expressed pleasure with the positive development of their comprehensive partnership, especially in the context of various activities conducted to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

At Minh's meeting with Catherine Ashton, Vice-President of the European Commission and the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the two officials expressed contentedness with the Viet Nam-EU ties' positive development, especially since the two sides signed the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) last June.

The FM asked the EU to speed up the approval process in order to bring the agreement into effect as soon as possible.

Source: VNS