Jakarta (VNA) – Speaker of the People’sRepresentative Council of Indonesia Setya Novanto met with Vietnam’s PartyGeneral Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on August 22, noting that his countryattaches importance to enhancing the friendship and multifaceted cooperationwith Vietnam.

Welcoming the Vietnamese leader’s officialvisit, Novanto expressed his admiration for the country’s struggle for nationalindependence while valuing its enormous achievements over the three decades ofreforms, especially in spurring economic growth, maintaining political andsocial stability, and improving people’s living standards.

General Secretary Trong noted his goodimpression of Indonesia and recalled the memories between late Presidents HoChi Minh and Sukarno. He congratulated Indonesia on major attainments in allaspects, voicing his belief that Indonesian people will continue to obtain moreaccomplishments in the time ahead.

The two sides shared the view that both Vietnamand Indonesia play important roles in ASEAN. They are trustworthy partners ofeach other and share many similar interests and viewpoints.

The countries should expand relations via thechannels of Parties, Governments, parliaments and people’s organisations, thushelping to reinforce their traditional friendship and strategic partnership,the leaders said.

They agreed to boost bilateral trade to 8billion USD in 2018 and 10 billion USD in the near future.

At the meeting, General Secretary Trong andSpeaker Novanto highly valued the comprehensive, positive and effectiverelationship between the National Assembly of Vietnam and the People’sRepresentative Council of Indonesia.

[Vietnam, Indonesia seek to promote all-⛎round cooperation]

Both sides need to step up cooperation in allspheres, including increasing delegation exchanges between their subordinatecommittees and enhancing activities of parliamentary friendship groups, so asto foster cooperation and experience sharing between the two legislativebodies.

They should also step up information exchange,close coordination and mutual support at international and regional forums suchas the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly,and the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the leaders added.

Party General Secretary Trong said he hopes thePeople’s Representative Council of Indonesia and the National Assembly ofVietnam, as the representative agencies of the two countries’ people, will havemore active contributions to the bilateral friendship, multifaceted cooperationand strategic partnership.

On this ocassion, he delivered an invitation tovisit Vietnam from National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to SpeakerNovanto, who accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Novanto asked his guest to convey his invitationto Chairwoman Ngan to attend the IPU Assembly in Bali on September 6.-VNA