Europe tour by NA Chairman enjoys greater-than-expected success

Hanoi (VNA) – The working trip to Europe from September 5 to 11 by Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue secured success beyond expectation, contributing to the enhancement of multilateral diplomacy and Vietnam’s relations with the countries he visited, an official said.

The top legislator of Vietnam and his entourage attended the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (WCSP5) in Austria, paid working visits to the European Parliament and Belgium, and made an official visit to Finland.

Highlighting the tour’s achievements, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung said Chairman Hue directly took part in the WCSP5, delivered an important speech at its plenary session, and gave remarks on some specific issues. He also engaged in tens of bilateral meetings with parliamentary leaders from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa on this occasion.

World parliamentary leaders highly valued the Vietnamese NA’s activeness, proactiveness, and high sense of responsibility in helping promote multilateral parliamentary diplomacy, Dung said.

He noted that the trip continued demonstrating the smooth coordination between parliamentary diplomacy and State diplomacy and sent the world the image of an open, proactive, and active Vietnam that is a responsible member of the international community and ready to cooperate and share experience with others to surmount COVID-19 together and boost post-pandemic development.

During the tour, Chairman Hue directly took part in several trade and investment promotion events, chaired business forums in the countries he set foot in, and met and listened to opinions of hundreds of representatives from large European and global enterprises.

He also witnessed the signing of tens of business contracts and memoranda of understanding on cooperation worth billions of USD between Vietnam and foreign partners, according to Deputy Minister Dung.

Another outstanding achievement of this trip is about vaccine diplomacy, he said, elaborating that the NA leader met Vietnamese ambassadors to Europe and assigned them to step up efforts to implement the vaccine diplomacy.

Heads of the European Parliament and the European Council voiced their support for Vietnam and pledged to encourage member states to increase assistance for the country, create conditions for Vietnam to access their spare vaccines, and help transfer vaccine production technology and provide medical equipment.

In particular, Belgium handed over 100,000 vaccine doses which were delivered to Vietnam by the flight carrying the Vietnamese delegation back home, while Slovakia also decided to present 100,000 vaccine doses to the country. Some others are also actively considering the vaccine and equipment support for Vietnam, the Deputy FM went on.

He added several foreign organisations, major Vietnamese businesses, and overseas Vietnamese donated more than 1 trillion VND (44 million USD) worth of medical supplies to the COVID-19 fight in the country./.