Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman have agreed on initiatives to further bilateral strategic partnership across politics, economics, national defence-security and labour.

Their meeting took place on November 19 on the sidelines of the 27th ASEAN Summit and related meetings held from November 18-22 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Deputy PM Minh hailed Malaysia for its responsible and active contributions to ASEAN as the bloc’s Chair, given that the common ASEAN Community is to be established.

Both sides discussed accelerating the signing of the 2015-2018 Action Plan as well as the agreements on extradition and transfer of sentenced prisoners, and a governmental-level memorandum of understanding on rice trade.

They agreed to continue the meeting mechanism of the Vietnam-Malaysia Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation in 2016, facilitate business and investment in fields of need, and consider the expansion of joint work in peacekeeping and trans-national crime prevention.

Expressing concern over the recent complicated developments in the East Sea which have eroded trust, threatened regional peace, security and stability, they shared view that ASEAN should stand united, responsible and active, hold up its central role and common voice on the issue, especially exerting itself to fully realise the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and promptly formulate a Code of Conduct in the East Sea while stepping up measures to build trust and prevent conflicts in the East Sea.

VNA