December 22, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto discussed ways to boost Vietnam-Finland relations during a phone conversation.
Pekka Haavisto congratulated Vietnam on its successful containment of COVID-19 and said he believes that both Vietnam and Finland will overcome the pandemic’s negative impacts to foster bilateral ties more strongly in the time to come. He also congratulated Vietnam on its successful performance as Chair of ASEAN in 2020 while highly valuing the country’s role, position, and efforts as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021.
The ministers expressed how pleased they are with the positive development of relations between the two nations and agreed that Vietnam and Finland will resume mutual visits as soon as the conditions allow it while still maintaining bilateral cooperation mechanisms.
Measures to strengthen bilateral economics, trade and investment links as the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has come into force, along with ways to strengthen cooperation in highly potential areas such as education-training, science-technology, development cooperation, and the environment was also discussed during the phone conversation.
Pham Binh Minh asked Finland to keep supporting, assisting, and sharing with Vietnam in issues of common concern within the frameworks of the UN and other multilateral forums. He empathized that Vietnam is ready to act as a trustworthy bridge between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the EU.
Source: Vietnamplus
