President Võ Văn Thưởng receives Pakistani Ambassador Samina Mehtab in Hà Nội on Tuesday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – President Võ Văn Thưởng received Pakistani Ambassador Samina Mehtab in Hà Nội on Tuesday, congratulating the outgoing diplomat on her excellent fulfillment of tasks in Việt Nam.

The State leader highly valued the ambassador’s active and effective contributions to the friendship and cooperation between the two countries, especially the organisation of many meaningful activities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 2022.

He highly appreciated Mehtab for holding a number of effective activities to promote cooperation between ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses of the two countries, thereby helping develop the Việt Nam - Pakistan friendship and cooperation and expand cooperation areas, especially economy, trade, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

Many business delegations of Pakistan have also come to Việt Nam to explore investment opportunities, he noted.

Thanking the President and relevant agencies of Việt Nam for their active support for her and her colleagues to fulfill duties, Mehtab said she was deeply impressed with the sentiments and hospitality of Vietnamese people, which, she said, is why the country’s tourism is growing so strongly.

She underlined the importance of economic and trade partnerships and voiced her delight at the vigorous growth of bilateral trade.

The ambassador expressed her hope that the two sides will soon hold high-level mutual visits to open up more opportunities for boosting trade ties. She also suggested the countries’ parliamentary friendship groups increase sharing experience to help enrich cooperation achievements.

In addition, Mehtab called on the two countries to further step up collaboration in other fields, particularly information technology and between chambers of commerce to promote coordination programmes between Vietnamese and Pakistani businesses.

President Thưởng emphasised that Việt Nam always treasures the cooperation with Pakistan and wishes the bilateral relations will develop more strongly in the future.

He agreed with the ambassador’s proposal on increasing high-level delegation exchanges, asking the two sides to boost mutual visits by delegations of ministries, sectors, localities, businesses, associations, and parliamentary friendship groups, along with people-to-people interactions, so as to enhance mutual understanding and friendship.

Việt Nam and Pakistan should make joint efforts to secure more fruitful partnerships in trade and investment, he added.

Through the ambassador, President Thưởng sent congratulations to Asif Ali Zardari on his recent election as President of Pakistan and invited the latter to pay a visit to Việt Nam.

He also expressed his hope that with her experience, understanding, and special sentiments towards Việt Nam, Mehtab will further contribute to the two countries’ relations in the time to come. – VNS