Vice President Võ Thị Ánh Xuân and caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria Stefan Yanev during their meeting on Tuesday in Sofia. — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

SOFIA — Vietnamese Vice President Võ Thị Ánh Xuân held talks with Bulgaria's caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev and Minister of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev in Sofia on Tuesday (local time) as part of her official visit.

During the meetings, Vice President Xuân affirmed that Vietnamese leaders and people always cherish the valuable assistance that the Bulgarian Government and people have given Việt Nam over the past 70 years, and she wished to further deepen the traditional and multifaceted relations between the two countries.

The Vietnamese VP highly appreciated the maintenance of good political and diplomatic relations between Việt Nam and Bulgaria, with frequent exchange of high-level delegations as well as close and effective cooperation at international and regional forums.

Xuân underlined that the two governments need to further strengthen exchanges and contacts between ministries and sectors, especially the focal agencies in charge of various economic activities and fields. This is in order to find specific measures to promote trade and investment cooperation, taking advantage of the strengths and potentials of the two countries, as well as the opportunities brought about by the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Việt Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

On the occasion, Xuân asked the Bulgarian Government to support the EU's removal of the IUU yellow card imposed on Vietnamese seafood, and work to soon hold the next meeting of the Joint Committee on economy-trade-science and technology.

The Vietnamese VP also suggested that the two sides bolster cooperation in traditional fields such as defence and security, education and training, culture and art, in tandem with exploring new, potential areas such as labour, innovation, or clean energy.

Affirming that Việt Nam is Bulgaria's priority partner in Asia, Bulgarian Government leader Stefan Yanev said that it will push the new tenure National Assembly to soon ratify the EVIPA. He also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in economic and trade and investment.

The leader also said the Bulgarian side will soon complete the procedures to sign cooperation agreements on culture and tourism in the 'new period.'

During Xuân's meeting with Bulgarian foreign minister, Svetlan Stoev congratulated Việt Nam in successfully holding the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2020 and its non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council in the 2020-21 tenure.

Stoev suggested the two sides enhance high-level dialogue and bilateral contacts, maintain political consultations between the two foreign ministries, and effectively utilise resources such as Vietnamese alumni and community in Bulgaria, in order to promote the traditional friendship between the two countries across all fields, especially trade, investment, education, culture, people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between localities.

Also during the day, the Vice President attended the Việt Nam-Bulgaria business seminar with the participation of 30 enterprises of the two countries and visited Sopharma, the largest pharmaceutical corporation in Bulgaria. — VNS