Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) -
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue held online talks with
Speaker of the Legislative Council of Brunei His Excellency Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Taib on June 9, during
which they noted with pleasure that bilateral ties are growing fruitfully.
Regarding the cooperation focus in the near future, Hue suggested effectively carrying out bilateral
cooperation mechanisms and better tapping bilateral cooperation potential, towards
achieving two-way trade of 500 million USD.
He expected that Brunei would assist Vietnamese firms in achieving Halal food
qualifications, thus making it easier for them to export products to the country.
The
Vietnamese NA supports and stays ready to work with the Legislative Council of
Brunei for the development of a harmonious and self-resilient ASEAN Community,
he affirmed.
The Vietnamese leader
emphasised that parliaments should continue making active and responsible
contributions to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)’s activities, including ensuring peace and stability; upholding common principles, values and standards; strengthening solidarity and
central role of ASEAN; abiding by law, especially the 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), towards building a practical and effective Code
of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (Photo: VNA)
According to the Chairman,
concerned parties need to build a regional economy with sustainable growth, place
the people in the centre in policy making while continuing to uphold ASEAN’s
centrality, consolidate the rules-based regional architecture, and highlight international
law, with a focus on multilateral cooperation.
Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman, for his part,
hailed Vietnam as one of the countries that Brunei wants to import more farm
produce to meet its people's demand.
He lauded the Vietnamese
NA for promoting important regional issues in its capacity as AIPA Chair, and wished the
two nations would work closely together within ASEAN and AIPA frameworks.
As the COVID-19 pandemic is
spreading complicatedly across the world, posing risks to economic recovery due to the
insufficient supply of vaccines and vaccine production technology, Hue
highlighted the importance of fair sharing and access to COVID-19 vaccines
worldwide as well as the digitalisation and application of information
technology in the fight against the pandemic, which he said, requires close
collaboration between legislative and executive agencies. This content needs to
be tabled for discussion at the 42nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary
Assembly scheduled for August, he said.
Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman affirmed that
Brunei supports the fair distribution of vaccines among nations, and emphasised the need of cooperation to ensure fair supply of vaccines for every country
and person.
On the occasion, the top Vietnamese legislator thanked Brunei for assisting Vietnamese citizens
living and working in the country in getting vaccinations against COVID-19./.
VNA