Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn (right) handed Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s letter of sympathy to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Turkish Ambassador to Việt Nam Haldun Tekneci. —  VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is ready to join reconstruction efforts in earthquake-hit areas in Turkey, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn told Turkish Ambassador to Việt Nam Haldun Tekneci during a reception in Hà Nội on Friday.

At the event, Sơn also handed Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s letter of sympathy to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the ambassador and informed him about what Việt Nam had been doing to help Turkey overcome the consequences of the disaster.

He asked Turkish authorities to continue creating favourable conditions and ensure the safety of the Vietnamese search and rescue teams as well as citizens living there.

Ambassador Tekneci, for his part, said the Turkish Government and people were deeply moved by the friendship and support shown by their Vietnamese counterparts. They highly appreciated Việt Nam’s first-ever deployment of search and rescue teams with a donation of US$100,000 to Turkey. This was seen as evidence of the friendship, cooperation and mutual support between the two countries in difficult times.

He affirmed that Turkey always valued relations with Việt Nam and would do its best to lift bilateral ties to a greater height.

As the two nations are celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, both sides agreed to facilitate the exchange of delegations at all levels, jointly hold economic and cultural events, strengthen people-to-people exchanges, toward further deepening bilateral friendship and cooperation.

Regarding the earthquake on February 6, Sơn previously cabled messages of condolences to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu and Faisal al-Mekdad.

The same day, the Vietnamese Embassy in Turkey and representatives of the Ministry of Public Security’s search and rescue team visited and presented gifts to a Vietnamese family in Adiyaman City.

Following the Foreign Ministry’s directions, the Vietnamese embassies in Turkey and Syria will continue to closely follow the situation and actively work with the host authorities and Việt Nam’s working delegations to offer the best support to search and rescue work, contributing to the Vietnamese Government’s common efforts to help the two nations recover from the disaster. — VNS