Vietnam border, seas, islands

Singapore, August 2 (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh had separate meetings with Foreign Ministers Taro Kono of Japan and Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran on August 2.

The events took place on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related meeting in Singapore.

Talking to Taro Kono, Deputy PM Minh thanked the Japanese Foreign Ministry for its coordination to successfully organise Vietnamese leaders’ trips to Japan recently, especially a State visit by President Tran Dai Quang. He and the Japanese official agreed that the two sides will continue working closely to realise the outcomes of those high-ranking visits.

He noted as the coordinator of ASEAN-Japan relations from this August, Vietnam will strongly work with the Northeast Asian nation to promote the substantive and effective development of ASEAN-Japan ties.

Minister Kono thanked leaders of the Vietnamese Party and State for expressing sympathies on Japanese people’s losses in recent natural disasters. He stressed that the Mekong-Japan Summit, slated for October this year, will help promote cooperation and people-to-people exchange in the region.

In terms of regional issues, the officials voiced concerns about the complex developments in the East Sea, underlining the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, as well as denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

At his meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Deputy PM Minh affirmed that Vietnam treasures the time-tested friendship with Iran, asking both sides to work together more closely to carry out the outcomes of recent high-level visits.

He also called on Iran to create more favourable conditions for major enterprises of Vietnam like Viettel and PetroVietnam to invest and do business in the country.

At the meeting, the two sides also agreed to strengthen partnership in energy, oil and gas, and banking to help soon raise bilateral trade to 2 billion USD. –VNA