Acting Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung meets with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen

Party Central Committee Secretary, Acting Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung and Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen. (Photo by HIEN HOA)

Minister Elina Valtonen highly appreciated the good development of Vietnam-Finland relations, highlighted by the official visit to Finland by General Secretary To Lam and his wife and the two countries' issuance of a Joint Statement on establishing a strategic partnership framework. The Finnish Foreign Minister congratulated Vietnam on its re-election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 term.

According to Minister Elina Valtonen, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ready to coordinate with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to further deepen bilateral cooperation in areas where both sides have strengths and high interests such as trade-investment, science-technology, energy, education -training, etc.; strengthen cooperation on green transformation, contributing to helping Vietnam soon realize the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050; ready to cooperate with Vietnam on improving technical capacity to help Vietnam soon meet the requirements to remove the IUU "yellow card".

Agreeing with the discussions of the Finnish Foreign Minister, Acting Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung affirmed the special significance of General Secretary To Lam's visit to Finland, as well as the fact that Finland is the first Nordic country to become a Strategic Partner of Vietnam; emphasizing the importance of the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation that the two countries have worked hard to cultivate.

The Acting Foreign Minister affirmed that Vietnam will never forget the valuable and timely support that the Government and people of Finland gave Vietnam during the most difficult years for Vietnam, typically the "Finland" project.

Implementing the results of the exchange between General Secretary To Lam and senior Finnish leaders, the two Ministers agreed that the two Foreign Ministries need to continue promoting and deepening the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries. The two sides need to maintain the momentum of delegation exchanges at all levels, especially high-level, on all channels of the Party, State, Government, National Assembly and people-to-people diplomacy; urgently coordinate to develop an Action Plan to implement the contents of the Joint Statement on establishing the framework of the Vietnam-Finland Strategic Partnership; strengthen cooperation on regional and international issues of mutual concern, thereby consolidating and further developing the Vietnam-European Union (EU) and Finland-ASEAN relations.

On this occasion, Acting Minister Le Hoai Trung asked Finland to coordinate with the remaining 7 EU countries to soon ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement to create favorable conditions for investors from both sides; informed about the drastic measures that the Vietnamese Government has implemented and asked Finland to speak up so that the European Commission can soon remove the IUU "yellow card" on Vietnamese seafood.

The two Ministers also discussed a number of regional and international security issues of mutual concern; stressed the need to promote multilateralism and peacefully resolve disputes on the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter.

On this occasion, Acting Minister Le Hoai Trung invited Minister Elina Valtonen to pay an official visit to Vietnam soon. Minister Valtonen happily accepted.

HANH NGUYEN

Source: https://nhandan.vn/quyen-bo-truong-ngoai-giao-le-hoai-trung-gap-bo-truong-ngoai-giao-phan-lan-elina-valtonen-post917017.html