President Tô Lâm and his Timor-Leste counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta in Hà Nội on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Lâm Khánh

HÀ NỘI — President Tô Lâm on Thursday held talks with his Timor-Leste counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta, affirming Việt Nam’s support for Timor-Leste’s growth and their bilateral cooperation.

This is Ramos-Horta’s third visit to Việt Nam and the second in his position as Timor-Leste president.

The Vietnamese leader also congratulated Timor-Leste on its socio-economic achievements and hoped for the success of the country’s Strategic Development Plan for 2011-30, aiming for better international integration and contributions to peace, prosperity and growth in the region.

Expressing his gratitude for the warm welcome, President Ramos-Horta said Timor-Leste sees Việt Nam as a development model and hopes to further improve the relations between the two countries.

The two leaders agreed that bilateral relations have seen remarkable progress with practical high-level delegation exchanges.

In terms of trade and economic relations, import-export turnover between the two countries reached over US$15.9 million in 2023.

Telemor, Việt Nam's Viettel Group, has also positively contributed to Timor-Leste’s socio-economic growth.

The two countries expect to increase delegation exchanges at all levels, in addition to the effective implementation of the Framework Agreement on Technical and Economic Cooperation, as well as the first meeting of the Việt Nam-Timor Leste Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation at the ministerial level.

They are also aiming for new bilateral mechanisms.

President Lâm underlined that Việt Nam is ready to supply rice for Timor-Leste to ensure food security, adding that the two countries should extend or renew their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the rice trade.

The Vietnamese state leader also encouraged Timor-Leste to increase the imports of Việt Nam’s high-quality products, including textiles, footwear, as well as food and dairy products.

He hoped that Timor-Leste would soon ratify the bilateral trade agreement signed in 2013 and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to scale up their operations and investment in Timor-Leste.

Thanking President Lâm for sharing Việt Nam’s valuable experiences in development and international integration, the Timor-Leste leader agreed to strengthen coordination for better bilateral trade-economic-investment cooperation.

They should expand cooperation to other highly potential sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forest and mineral resource mining, he added.

Agreeing with Việt Nam’s recommendation to take advantage of new trends for growth, President Ramos-Horta hoped that Timor-Leste would continue to receive assistance from Việt Nam to improve human resources, ensure food security and eradicate poverty.

The two countries also expect to expand their effective cooperation to other key sectors, notably agriculture, aquaculture, telecommunications, education, oil and gas, infrastructure, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.

Discussing regional and global issues of mutual concern, they agreed to strengthen support and cooperation in regional and international forums.

President Lâm also highlighted Việt Nam’s support for Timor-Leste’s roadmap to ASEAN full membership, giving high regard to Timor-Leste’s efforts and determination in this matter.

President Ramos-Horta also affirmed his country’s support for Việt Nam’s candidacy at multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations (UN) Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council.

Regarding the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) issue, the two countries commit to the rule of law in maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in this area.

They also expressed their support for resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the negotiation for the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC).

Following their talks, the two state presidents witnessed the signing of the bilateral visa exemption agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders. — VNS