President Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets Speaker of Singaporean Parliament

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin and other delegates take a photo at the Parliament Building of Singapore

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc met Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin on February 25 as part of his ongoing State visit to Singapore.

Speaker of the Parliament Tan expressed his delight at the fruitful outcomes of President Phuc's talks and meeting with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob and PM Lee Hsien Loong. He congratulated Vietnam on the socio-economic achievements that the country has recorded in recent times despite COVID-19 impacts.

President Phuc affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to promote the strategic partnership with Singapore.

He showed his pleasure with the two legislatures' close cooperation over the years, with substantive results of the online talks between Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin in July last year.

He informed the host that the Vietnamese NA has established the Vietnam-ASEAN Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group, with an aim of strengthening the exchange among Vietnamese NA deputies and their peers from ASEAN member countries, including Singapore, and contributing to promoting people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

Both sides agreed to maintain and strengthen meetings and exchange of delegations at all levels through channels, including the parliament channel, while continuing to promote the role of the legislative bodies of both sides in bolstering bilateral relations, especially through the sharing of experience in institutional building and legal system completion, contributing to fostering bilateral economic connectivity and developing digital economy and digital society -areas of Singapore’s strength.

President Phuc proposed that both sides increase the sharing of experience in issuing legal policies to give timely support to the two governments in disease prevention and control and improvement of the investment and business environment, thus assisting the socio-economic recovery in the new normal.

The two legislatures should consider the signing of a cooperation agreement to lay a foundation for the implementation of collaboration activities to match the strategic partnership between the two countries, he suggested.

The Vietnamese State leader expressed his hope that the legislative body of Singapore will continue to support the maintaining of the ASEAN common stance on ensuring peace, security, aviation and maritime security, safety and freedom in the East Sea, as well as the settlement of disputes through peaceful measures on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

President Phuc took the occasion to convey NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue’s invitation to visit Vietnam to Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin./.