During her talks with President of the Senate of the Netherlands Ankie Broekers-Knol in The Hague on March 27, Chairwoman Ngan expressed her hope that the visit will open up new cooperation prospects in bilateral relations as well as cooperative ties between Vietnam, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU), especially when Vietnam and the Netherlands are celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties.
Broekers-Knol said the top Vietnamese legislator’s visit followed the official visit to the Netherlands by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in July 2017, during which she highly valued Vietnam’s successful hosting of the 132nd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly (IPU-132) and relevant events.
The current visit by NA Chairwoman Ngan has created an opportunity for the two sides to share legislative experience and promote parliamentary ties, the Senate President said.
While informing the outcomes of her earlier talks with Speaker of the House of Representatives Khadija Arib, Chairwoman Ngan said the two sides exchanged views on a lot of issues and agreed to step up cooperation in specific realms.
The chairwoman also highlighted social-economic development achievements that Vietnam has gained in 2017, especially since the country joined ASEAN in 1995.
The host and guest expressed their pleasure at the growing friendship and cooperation in all spheres over the past 45 years as well as the enhanced mutual political trust between Vietnam and the Netherlands.
Ngan said Vietnam set up the Vietnam-Netherlands Cooperation and Friendship Association for the 2013-2018 tenure, which has contributed to increasing people-to-people exchanges, hoping that the Netherlands will soon establish a similar association to promote mutual understanding and friendship.
The top legislators held that economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and the Netherlands are growing fruitfully over the past few years.
The Vietnamese Party and State highly evaluated the strategic partnership agreement on climate change adaptation and water management signed in 2010 and the strategic partnership agreement on sustainable agriculture and food security sealed in 2014 between Vietnam and the Netherlands, Ngan said, describing them as effective cooperation models that have contributed to sustainable development in Vietnam.
She recognised and spoke highly of the Netherlands’s assistance in building the Mekong Delta Plan (MDP) to cope with climate change and improve water management.
Vietnam is particularly interested in environmental issues and hi-tech agriculture development, which are the strengths of the Netherlands, and hopes the European country will continue cooperating and sharing experience with Vietnam in the fields, Ngan said.
Vietnam and the Netherlands are also expected to strengthen collaboration in such potential areas as tourism, transport, education-training, and culture, Ngan said, urging the two nations to sign a bilateral tourism cooperation agreement to make a legal foundation for the establishment and implementation of specific cooperation programmes.
The two leaders applauded cooperative ties between Vietnamese and Dutch localities, saying they have helped promote mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between the Vietnamese and Dutch people.
Broekers-Knol said the Netherlands want to cooperate with Vietnam in various fields, particularly in response to climate change and sea level rise, noting that her country created a perfect breakwater system when sea level rise left critical impacts on the Netherlands 70 years ago.
At the talks, the two leaders expressed their interest in high-tech agriculture and discussed measures to tackle global food security. The Vietnamese top legislator briefed the host about Vietnam’s agricultural production and exports in recent years.
Regarding bilateral legislative relations, the leaders held that cooperative ties between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Dutch Senate have been growing well in recent years. In that spirit, Ngan suggested the two sides continue exchanging delegations to increase mutual understanding and trust, improve the efficiency of consultation mechanisms and closely cooperate at multilateral forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP).
They parliaments need to supervise the implementation of cooperation agreements inked by the two governments while promoting information exchanges on parliamentary activities in each nation, Ngan said, recommending the establishment of friendship parliamentary groups.
As maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation is the common benefit of the international community, including the Netherlands, Ngan hoped that the country will raise its voice to support the East Sea issue, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and the strict observance and enforcement of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).
She took the occasion to thank the Netherlands for creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community, expecting that the Senate President will further support Vietnamese nationals so that they can make contributions to the host nation’s socio-economic development and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries.
NA Chairwoman Ngan invited Senate President Broekers-Knol to pay an official visit to Vietnam at a convenient time to discuss more about issues of mutual concern regarding cooperative relations between the two nations and the two parliaments. The State President accepted the invitation with pleasure.
