At the meeting, Hang welcomed the delegation and spoke highly of the visit. She said Vietnam and France share many special historical and cultural ties, noting that despite ups and downs in the past, bilateral relations have reached a new level and have become a model of strategic partnership, with France being the first European Union member state with which Vietnam established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

She also expressed satisfaction with the positive development of bilateral relations across all fields, including the important contributions made by the two countries' legislative bodies.

Hailing longstanding French cooperation projects in Vietnam in transport infrastructure, industry and healthcare, Hang proposed that both sides  continue to intensify exchanges and contacts at all levels and through all channels, continue to bring into play the pillar role of economic and trade cooperation, and jointly advance symbolic projects in Vietnam-France relations.

Hang called on the French National Assembly to ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) at an early date and support the European Commission's early removal of the "yellow card" warning imposed on Vietnamese seafood exports over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

She also expressed the hope that French lawmakers will  support stronger people-to-people exchanges and locality-to-locality cooperation, and work toward the early agreement of a plan to organise the 13th Conference on Decentralised Cooperation between Vietnam and France in France.

For his part, Jacques showed great joy to visit Vietnam at a time when the two countries' Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is developing positively. He stressed that Vietnam-France relations are special and unique, built on a shared historical foundation, and said the Vietnamese people possess many admirable qualities.

Amid increasingly complex international developments, Jacques called for the two countries to continue strengthening comprehensive cooperation across economic, agricultural, cultural and strategic fields.

He affirmed that French lawmakers support the early ratification of EVIPA and the removal of the IUU "yellow card" by the European Commission, while pledging the effective implementation of the Vietnam-France Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Applauding  the positive contributions made by the Vietnamese community in France, Jacques said members of the French National Assembly, particularly the France-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians' Group, stand ready to actively support and boost people-to-people exchanges, cultural connectivity and cooperation between localities in the two nations.

The two sides agreed to make defence and security one of the important pillars of bilateral relations through cooperation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, search and rescue activities, and officer training.

They also reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and aviation  in seas and oceans, including the East Sea, and of resolving disputes through peaceful means in accordance with international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Vietnam and France step up defence cooperation, parliamentary ties

VOV.VN - Vietnam and France have agreed to further strengthen defence-security cooperation and expand ties between their legislative bodies in an effort to concretise the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework between the two countries.