At the talks and meetings, Vice Chairman Vu Hong Thanh affirmed that Viet Nam values and wishes to further develop its friendly cooperative relations with African friends, including Côte d’Ivoire — Viet Nam’s second-largest trading partner in Africa, with bilateral trade turnover reaching nearly 1.3 billion USD in 2024.
Welcoming the first official visit by a high-level leader of the Vietnamese National Assembly since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Côte d’Ivoire’s senior leaders highly appreciated Vice Chairman Vu Hong Thanh’s visit. They emphasised viewing Viet Nam as a model and expressed a desire to learn from Viet Nam’s experience in poverty reduction, investment attraction, and national development.
In a sincere and open atmosphere, building on the impressive cooperation results over the past 50 years, senior leaders of both countries exchanged and agreed on several measures to further strengthen bilateral relations.
Both sides agreed to make inter-parliamentary cooperation one of the key pillars of bilateral ties; to promote consultation mechanisms and close coordination at multilateral parliamentary forums; to effectively implement the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two National Assemblies; and to consider establishing a Viet Nam–Côte d’Ivoire Friendship Parliamentary Group in the near future.
The two sides also agreed to continue consolidating political trust and increasing delegation exchanges at all levels; to promote negotiations and signing of foundational cooperation documents such as the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, the Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation, and the Memorandum of Understanding on Economic and Trade Cooperation, thereby creating favourable legal conditions for bilateral cooperation.
In addition to continuing to promote traditional cooperation areas such as cashew and rice trade, state management agencies on both sides should encourage businesses to enhance information sharing, participate in trade fairs and exhibitions in each country, and expand to sectors such as textiles, footwear, building materials, electrical equipment, and Halal products; to promote trilateral agricultural cooperation; and to strengthen cooperation in the banking sector.
Vietnamese National Assembly Vice Chairman Vu Hong Thanh thanked Côte d’Ivoire for supporting Viet Nam’s candidacies at international multilateral organisations and proposed that both sides continue their tradition of coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums. He also expressed a desire for Côte d’Ivoire to assist and serve as a bridge for Viet Nam to promote relations with the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Viet Nam is ready to act as a bridge and support the strengthening of cooperative relations between Côte d’Ivoire and ASEAN and its member countries.
