President Tran Dai Quang (L) and President Alexander Lukashenko shake hands at the signing ceremony of the joint statement (Photo: VNA)The joint statement reflects the two countries’similar viewpoints on bilateral relations and international issues as well asaffirms their consistent policy of reinforcing and developing the traditionalfriendship between Vietnam and Belarus.
The leaders expressed their satisfaction at thecontinuous, dynamic and constructive development of bilateral relations, andthe active exchange of delegations at high level in recent years.
The two sides affirmed the shared wish toincrease trade and economic cooperation and recognised the huge cooperationpotential in this field, taking into account the free trade agreement betweenVietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which took effect from October5, 2016.
Both nations agreed to enhance collaboration inthe production of transport vehicles, agriculture, petrochemicals, lightindustry, information technology, banking, electronics, mining, aquaticprocessing, industrial-agricultural produce, and other economic sectors.
The two leaders welcomed the establishment ofthe Vietnamese-Belarusian joint venture MAZ Asia to assembly Belarus’ trucks inVietnam, and pledged to facilitate its operation.
Both sides acknowledged big opportunities andthe wish to become more involved in each other’s national programmes,infrastructure, energy, and other projects, including the design and constructionof underground, the national library, and mining in Vietnam, and projects inindustry, agriculture, information communication, and tourism in Belarus.
The two Presidents recognised the effectivecooperation between the two countries in defence and security, whichcontributes to ensuring regional and global stability.
They stressed the importance of boosting partnershipin other fields such as science-technology, education, healthcare, culture,sports and tourism.
Vietnam appreciated Belarus’ decision tosimplify visa procedures for Vietnamese citizens having Schengen visa or visasissued by EU member countries as from February 12, 2017.
Vice versa, Belarus thanked Vietnam forexempting visa for Belarusian citizens entering Vietnam for a short time as fromJuly 1, 2015, as well as including Belarus in the list of countries benefitingfrom Vietnam’s pilot e-visa project.
The two sides also agreed to step up cooperation betweenVietnamese and Belarusian localities.
Both sides affirmed the similarities in theirviewpoints on key regional and global issues, expressing the readiness tocooperate closely within the framework of international organisations,especially the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement, and to work togetherfor the building of fair and equal international political and economic orders.
They also agreed to coordinate closely topromote the implementation of global agreements such as the 2030 Agenda forSustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
They underscored the importance and necessity ofrespecting each other’s sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity, theprinciple of not interfering in other countries’ internal affairs and not usingor threatening to use force, the principles of win-win cooperation for peace,stability and development, and the adherence to standards of international lawand the UN Charter.
Vietnam and Belarus support the settlement ofterritorial disputes, including the East Sea disputes, by peaceful meanswithout using or threatening to use force, with the participation of allconcerned parties. They welcome efforts to draft and soon ratify a Code ofConduct (COC) of parties in the East Sea.
They declared that they support the activeinternational integration policies of Vietnam and Belarus. The Vietnamese sideaffirmed the readiness to support Belarus’s wish to consolidate multi-facetedcooperation with Southeast Asian nations. The Belarusian side said it iswilling to assist Vietnam in developing win-win cooperation with the membercountries of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Commonwealth of IndependentStates.
President Tran Dai Quang highly valued Belarus’spolicy of developing relations with Asian-Pacific nations. President AlexanderLukashenko welcomed Vietnam’s growing role in the region, especially thehosting of APEC 2017.
Both sides shared the view that the officialvisit to Belarus by President Tran Dai Quang contributes significantly to thesolidification of the countries’ traditional friendship and comprehensivecooperation and also an important step towards the establishment of a strategicpartnership.-VNA
VNA
