PM arrives in Quebec for G7 Outreach Summit, Canada visit

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation arrived in the Jean – Lesage Airport in Quebec on June 8 morning (local time) to attend the Group of Seven (G7) Outreach Summit and visit Canada from June 8-10 at the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc is welcomed at the airport by Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc, officials from Quebec State and Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hoa.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc is welcomed at the airport by Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc, officials from Quebec State and Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hoa.

The Vietnamese leader was welcomed at the airport by Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc, officials from Quebec State and Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hoa.

The G7 Outreach Summit will be held in Charlevoix, Quebec on June 8 and 9 with the participation of leaders of the world’s seven advanced economies, namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, and several guests, including Vietnam.

The agenda of this year’s summit focuses on gender equality and women empowerment, investment in inclusive growth, preparations to adapt to job placements in future, cooperation to respond to climate change and protect oceans, and the building of a more peaceful and safer world.

In addition to participating in the G7 Outreach Summit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend a display of smart technology for the future at the Laval University and meet with leaders of Quebec State.

He also plans to attend and address a Vietnam - Canada business seminar and meet with leaders of several countries participating in the G7 Summit and the G7 Outreach Summit.

On June 10, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will welcome and hold talks with his Vietnamese counterpart.

Vietnam and Canada established diplomatic ties in 1973 and began the exchange of high-ranking delegations since 1994. During a visit by Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in September 2014, the foreign ministers of Vietnam and Canada signed a Letter of Intent on consolidating and boosting bilateral relations. In September 2016, when Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion visited Vietnam, the two sides agreed to promote cooperation in seven fields mentioned in the Letter of Intent, with a focus on trade-investment and education-training.

On the occasion of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s official visit to Vietnam in November 2017, the two countries issued a joint statement on the establishment of their comprehensive partnership, which set forth basic principles for bilateral relations along with orientations and measures to foster bilateral partnership in the seven fields of politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, development cooperation, defence-security, culture-education, science-technology, and people-to-people exchange.

Vietnam is currently Canada’s biggest trade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with bilateral trade reaching nearly US$5 billion in 2017. Canada ranks 14th among 112 nations and territories investing in Vietnam with 149 projects worth a total of US$4.1 billion.

Recently, Canada announced official development assistance (ODA) for a project to develop cooperatives in Vietnam, another to help the country respond to climate change and two others on food safety.

Bilateral cooperation in education and training is enjoying strong growth, with the number of Vietnamese students in Canada rising twofold in the past 10 years to 12,000, the largest among ASEAN countries.