Appreciating the significance of the Czech PM’s visit to Vietnam, Chinh affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of promoting relations with traditional friends, with the Czech Republic as a priority partner.

Fiala expressed his delight at visiting Vietnam for the first time, confirming that his country attaches importance to its over-70-year friendship with Vietnam, always considers Vietnam the most important partner in Southeast Asian and hopes to develop bilateral cooperation in various fields.

The two sides agreed to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, maintain the effective implementation of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and discuss a new collaboration framework to create breakthroughs, and further deepen the traditional friendship between the two countries.

In terms of economy and trade, the leaders welcomed the rapid growth of bilateral trade turnover in recent years to reach 848 million USD in 2022. They agreed to set a target of hitting the 1 billion USD mark in the next 1-2 years by continuing to fully and effectively implement the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and improve the effectiveness of the joint committee mechanism on economic cooperation. They will encourage Czech enterprises to promote investment in Vietnam, especially in the fields of Czech strength such as automobile manufacturing, digital transformation, renewable energy, the environment, and infrastructure.

PM Chinh asked the Czech Republic to help push other EU countries to soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). PM Fiala emphasised that Vietnam is a potential economic partner, and more and more Czech businesses are interested in expanding their investment and business in Vietnam.

Regarding the European Commission (EC)’s yellow card warning on Vietnam's seafood exports, the Czech leader stressed the need to strengthen cooperation between the EU and Vietnam on sustainable fisheries development, and showed backing for the commission’s early removal of the yellow card.

The two leaders agreed to step up cooperation in security-defence, culture, education-training, labour, science-technology, transport, and tourism; and consider the opening of a cultural centre in each country and direct air routes to promote investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.

The Vietnamese Government leader thanked the Czech Government for creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live stably and make positive contributions to the host country’s socio-economic development. The Czech PM appreciated the role of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, which was recognised as an ethnic minority by the Czech government in 2013.

The two PMs also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, and affirmed that the two countries will maintain close coordination and mutual support at international forums and organisations.

Regarding the East Sea issue, they reaffirmed support of the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

After the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in the field of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, investment and education.

Earlier, they visited a photo exhibition on political, diplomatic, economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries, organised by the Vietnam News Agency./. VNA