Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) –
The working trip to Europe from September 5 to 11 by Chairman of the National
Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue secured success beyond expectation, contributing
to the enhancement of multilateral diplomacy and Vietnam’s relations with the
countries he visited, an official said.
The top legislator of Vietnam
and his entourage attended the Fifth World
Conference of Speakers of Parliament (WCSP5) in Austria, paid working
visits to the European Parliament and Belgium, and made an official visit to
Finland.
Highlighting
the tour’s achievements, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung said Chairman
Hue directly took part in the WCSP5, delivered an important speech at its
plenary session, and gave remarks on some specific issues. He also engaged in
tens of bilateral meetings with parliamentary leaders from Europe, Latin America,
Asia, and Africa on this occasion.
World parliamentary
leaders highly valued the Vietnamese NA’s activeness, proactiveness, and high
sense of responsibility in helping promote multilateral parliamentary diplomacy,
Dung said.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (L) meets President of the European Parliament David Sassoli in Brussels, Belgium, on September 8 (Photo: VNA)
He noted
that the trip continued demonstrating the smooth coordination between parliamentary
diplomacy and State diplomacy and sent the world the image of an open,
proactive, and active Vietnam that is a responsible member of the international
community and ready to cooperate and share experience with others to surmount COVID-19
together and boost post-pandemic development.
During the
tour, Chairman Hue directly took part in several trade and investment promotion
events, chaired business forums in the countries he set foot in, and met and
listened to opinions of hundreds of representatives from large European and
global enterprises.
He also
witnessed the signing of tens of business contracts and memoranda of understanding
on cooperation worth billions of USD between Vietnam and foreign partners,
according to Deputy Minister Dung.
Another outstanding
achievement of this trip is about vaccine diplomacy, he said, elaborating that
the NA leader met Vietnamese ambassadors to Europe and assigned them to step up
efforts to implement the vaccine diplomacy.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (back row, third from left) and officials witness the Belgian Government's symbolic presentation of 100,000 doses of the AztraZeneca vaccine for Vietnam on September 9 (Photo: VNA)
Heads of
the European Parliament and the European Council voiced their support for
Vietnam and pledged to encourage member states to increase assistance for the
country, create conditions for Vietnam to access their spare vaccines, and help
transfer vaccine production technology and provide medical equipment.
In particular,
Belgium handed over 100,000 vaccine doses which were delivered to Vietnam by
the flight carrying the Vietnamese delegation back home, while Slovakia also
decided to present 100,000 vaccine doses to the country. Some others are also actively
considering the vaccine and equipment support for Vietnam, the Deputy FM went on.
He added several
foreign organisations, major Vietnamese businesses, and overseas Vietnamese donated
more than 1 trillion VND (44 million USD) worth of medical supplies to the COVID-19
fight in the country./.