Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng and Kazakhstani counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (standing third and second from left) witnessed the signing of agreement on tourism cooperation between the two countries' ministries of culture and tourism. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan had comprehensive and in-depth discussions on various measures to promote bilateral relations and deepen the effectiveness of cooperation during their talks in Hà Nội on Monday.

During the talks at the Presidential Palace, President Thưởng expressed admiration towards the achievements that the State and people of Kazakhstan have made in maintaining political stability and socio-economic development, reaffirming that Việt Nam always values the traditional friendship with Kazakhstan and considers Kazakhstan as one of its top important partners in the Central Asian region.

President Tokayev expressed his joy for his first official visit to Việt Nam and highly appreciated Việt Nam's đổi mới (renewal) policy and important achievements in socio-economic development and enhancing its international reputation.

The State of Kazakhstan always cherishes the good traditional friendship between the two countries and considers Việt Nam as one of its highest priority partners in the Asia-Pacific region, he underlined.

The two sides stressed the importance of promoting delegation exchange at all levels, especially high-level ones, and effectively implementing existing cooperation mechanisms between ministries, sectors, and localities to enhance understanding, trust, and motivation for multi-dimensional cooperation between the two countries.

Việt Nam and Kazakhstan also agreed to maintain close coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng and Kazakhstani counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after their official talks in Hà Nội on Monday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

Việt Nam is ready to serve as a bridge for Kazakhstan to strengthen cooperation with countries in Southeast Asia, and Kazakhstan will be a bridge for Việt Nam to enhance cooperation with countries in Central Asia, the two sides agreed.

The two leaders highly appreciated positive developments in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, including the effective implementation of the Free Trade Agreement between Việt Nam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), of which Kazakhstan has been a member since 2016, but noted that there is still plenty room for growth in this regard.

President Thưởng proposed Kazakhstan back the negotiations to soon upgrade the Free Trade Agreement to meet the current demands and to timely create more opportunities for trade exchanges between the two countries.

President Tokayev expressed his wish for both sides to closely coordinate to attain the goal of US$1.5 billion in bilateral trade as soon as possible. He also supported the advancing of cooperation between the two countries in logistics services, transportation, and agriculture.

He also proposed the establishment of the Việt Nam-Kazakhstan Business Council to drive up business cooperation between the two countries.

Both sides expressed their desire to strengthen investment cooperation by enhancing the exchange of information on the investment environment, and facilitating access to each other's markets for businesses.

They also discussed the possibility of establishing joint ventures in potential fields such as textiles, halal food processing, canned goods, and seafood to supply to the Central Asian market.

The two leaders agreed to expand cooperation to potential areas such as transportation, education and training, culture, sports, tourism, finance, banking, and high technology.

They welcomed the opening of a direct flight between Việt Nam and Kazakhstan in October 2022, and believed that the signing of a reciprocal visa exemption agreement for ordinary passport holders and a Memorandum of Cooperation in the tourism sector during the Kazakhstani leader's visit would contribute to enhancing tourism cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

During the talks, the leaders discussed international and regional issues of mutual concern and shared their views on resolving disputes in the region and the world through peaceful means based on international law.

President Thưởng thanked President Tokayev and the Government of Kazakhstan for their attention and favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live, study, and work stably in Kazakhstan.

On this occasion, President Tokayev has invited President Thưởng to visit Kazakhstan, to which the latter has gladly accepted.

Following the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of several cooperation documents, including the Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, the Agreement on Visa Exemption for Ordinary Passport Holders, the Joint Action Plan to promote economic and trade cooperation for the 2023-25 period, the Memorandum of Cooperation in the tourism sector, and the Memorandum of Understanding between Việt Nam Television (VTV) and Agency Khabar. — VNS