19 December
AT the invitation of the President of the Re-public of the Union of Myanmar, U Win Myint, and Daw Cho Cho, Prime Minister of the Socialist Repub-lic of Viet Nam, His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid an official visit to Myanmar from 16 to 18 December 2019.
The delegation led by Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrived at Nay Pyi Taw International Air-port by flight in the evening of 16 December 2019. At 0900 AM on 17 December 2019, Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw by President U Win Myint. After the ceremony, President U Win Myint had a courtesy call with Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Credential Hall of the Presidential Palace. During the meeting, the two leaders touched on a wide range of issues relat-ing to the promotion of bilateral relations, trade and investment, exchange of visits between the leaders of the two countries and to maintain and strengthen the friendly bilateral relations by en-hancing people to people contact.
After that, the State Counsel-lor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc held bilateral talks at the Presiden-tial Palace. During the meeting, both sides reviewed the existing traditional ties of friendship es-tablished by General Aung San and President Ho Chi Minh, and exchanged views on matters per-taining to the significant achieve-ments in bilateral cooperation in recent years and ways to further enhance closer cooperation be-tween the two countries. The two leaders also reviewed the close friendship and cooper-ation cultivated by successive leaders and peoples from both countries. They also discussed the progresses achieved in bi-lateral cooperation in the past years, particularly the elevation of bilateral ties to Comprehen-sive Cooperative Partnership in August 2017, which has opened up a new chapter in bilateral re-lations.
Both sides discussed to co operate more closely to strength-en the effectiveness of compre-hensive cooperation in all areas, including trade and investment, agriculture, agro-forestry and fishery, connectivity, energy and telecommunications, tourism, In-formation and Communication Technology; to promote coopera-tion in regional and international arena, activities to celebrate the commemoration of the 45th anni-versary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2020, to contin-ue working closely and extending support to each other at the regional and international fora, especially under the frameworks of ASEAN, the United Nations, ASEM and Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, to coordinate more closely during Viet Nam’s Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2020.
The two Leaders reaffirmed their commitments to accelerate in promotion of trade and investments between the two countries since the volume of two-way trade between Myan-mar and Viet Nam in 2019 has increased by 11.61% compared to 2018. Currently, Viet Nam stands as the 9th largest trading partner and 7th largest foreign investor in Myanmar.
The two sides emphasized that the exchange of visits at all levels and channels, including government to government, parliament to parliament, party to party, people to people especially young generations, will enhance and consolidate friendship, mutu-al trust and cooperation between the two countries and peoples.
The Vietnamese side stressed the importance attached to its relations with My-anmar and reaffirmed its continued support for Myanmar’s effort towards peace and national rec-onciliation. Likewise, Myanmar side expressed its admiration on the achievements of reforms in Viet Nam especially for the progress on socio-economic life of its people and sustainable de-velopment. The Myanmar side expressed its appreciation to Viet Nam for its consistent support extended to Myanmar’s peace process and national reconcili-ation as well as for sharing with Myanmar its experiences with regard to economic development. The two leaders reiterated their commitments to enhance close cooperation in regional and inter-national fora, including ASEAN, Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations.
Following the meeting, State Counsellor and Vietnam-ese Prime Minister witnessed the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding and the Action Plan between the two sides. The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development, be-tween the Ministry of Agricul-ture, Livestock and Irrigation of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Develop-ment of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam was signed by Dr. Aung Thu, Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irri-gation of the Republic of the Un-ion of Myanmar and Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Minister of Agri-culture and Rural Development the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Then, the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the two Foreign Min-istries and the Action Plan on Implementation of the Compre-hensive Cooperative Partnership between the Republic of the Un-ion of Myanmar and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (2019-2024) were signed by U Soe Han, Per-manent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and Mr. Dang Minh Khoi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. After that, diplomatic notes for the exten-sion of stay for ordinary passport holders from 14 to 30 days were exchanged.
Then, State Counsellor and Vietnamese Prime Minister held a Joint Press Briefing.
After the Joint Press Brief-ing, President U Win Myint and Daw Cho Cho, hosted a luncheon in honour of visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Presidential Place in Nay Pyi Taw. The two leaders delivered speeches and exchanged toasts. In exchange of their toasts, the two leaders recalled their shared experiences and struggles in historical context and reiterated their common aspiration to work together for promoting friendship, mutual trust and benefits between the two countries and peoples.
On the same day in the afternoon, the Vietnamese Prime Min-ister His Excellency Mr.Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with U T Khun Myat, the Speaker of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc and delegation de-parted for Yangon by flight at 1600PM. In the evening, Viet-namese Prime Minister visited Embassy of Viet Nam in Yangon and met with Embassy staffs, family members of the Embassy and the Vietnamese Community.
In the morning of 18 Decem-ber 2019, Prime Minister His Ex-cellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid homage to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. Then, Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Mytel Office, THA-CO, BIDV and SHB Offices at Myanmar Plaza in Yangon. Af-ter that, visiting Prime Minister received the Myanmar-Vietnam Friendship Association, attend-ed the opening ceremony of HD Bank and received U Phyo Min Thein, Chief Minister for the Yan-gon Region Government at Melia Hotel, Yangon.
The delegation led by the Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc left for Viet Nam in the evening.
A Joint Statement was is-sued at the conclusion of the Official Visit. According to the statement, both sides agreed to promote the mutually bene-ficial cooperation especially in the areas of politics, trade and investment, defence and securi-ty, legal affairs and justice, agri-culture, forestry, culture, sport, transport and communication, tourism, information technology, protection of natural resources and environment, implementa-tion of e-government projects and the exchange of visits and to strengthen the closer collab-oration in the regional and inter-national fora.
The Official Visit of Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Myan-mar is his first visit to Myanmar after the assumption of the high office as Prime Minister of Viet Nam on 7 April 2016. The visit is a significant milestone in Myanmar- Viet Nam bilateral rela-tions. It is also the first visit of the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to Myan-mar since December 2011. His visit further strengthened the traditional bonds of friendship between the two countries. The MoU on Cooperation in Agricul-ture and Rural Development, the Action Plan (2019 - 2024) and the MoU on Cooperation between the two Foreign Ministries which were signed during the visit also served as an impetus to accel-erate the bilateral cooperation between Myanmar and Viet Nam.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nay Pyi Taw
18 December 2019
