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| Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Pham Vinh Quang and Canadian Governor General Mary Jeannie May Simon in Ottawa. (Photo: VNA) |
During the meeting after the presentation of credentials ceremony, Ambassador Quang affirmed that the leaders and people of Vietnam wish to maintain, comprehensively develop, and further deepen the comprehensive partnership established in 2017 between the two countries.
Quang said that on Vietnam’s path of development and international integration, Canada is always one of the most important partners.
Canada is Vietnam’s second largest trading partner, after the US, in the American continent. Meanwhile, Vietnam is Canada’s gateway to Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, Vietnam is Canada’s leading trading partner in ASEAN and Canada’s 6th largest trading partner in the group of 40 Indo-Pacific countries.
He informed the host of the increasingly profound and effective development of the Vietnam-Canada Comprehensive Partnership, especially in 2023 when the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
Since the beginning of this year, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau have met twice on the sidelines of summits in Japan in May and in Indonesia in September. During their meetings, the two leaders expressed their impression of the progress in the Vietnam-Canada Comprehensive Partnership, in which trade cooperation is a bright spot with bilateral turnover hitting over 7 billion USD in 2022. The two sides agreed to raise bilateral trade to 10 billion USD in the near future.
The Ambassador emphasised that the two sides need to continue deepening the comprehensive partnership in the fields of politics -diplomacy, and defense-security via promoting regular high-level visits, annual meetings for dialogue and policy exchange at the deputy minister level between the two countries’ ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Industry and Trade.
Vietnam supports Canada’s implementation of Indo-Pacific strategies and strategic partnership with ASEAN, especially in economics, trade, investment, and development cooperation. The Southeast Asian nation is ready to welcome a Canadian ministerial delegation to visit Vietnam in 2024 to explore and promote cooperation opportunities, especially in areas where Canada has strengths such as energy transition, digital transformation, green transformation, or innovation, and the sharing of experience in technology, governance, and human resources training.
The Ambassador expressed his wish that Canada creates favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses and further open the market for Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural and aquatic products.
He also expected cultural, sports, and tourism cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation between localities of the two countries will be further promoted.
For her part, Governor General Simon congratulated Ambassador Quang on his new working term in Canada, and believed that the diplomat would make contributions to the increasingly effective and substantive development of the Vietnam-Canada Comprehensive Partnership in the coming years.
She express her pleasure with the sound development of the bilateral ties, while saying she believes the two countries will continue to strengthen cooperation and coordination in regional, international issues such as climate change, thereby contributing to maintaining peace, stability, and prosperous development in the Indo-Pacific region and the world as well.
Canada, a multi-ethnic country like Vietnam, wants to strengthen cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges with Vietnam, she said.
She also affirmed that the Vietnamese community in Canada plays an important role and actively contributes to Canada’s development and cultural diversity.