National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn (right) meets his Singaporean counterpart Seah Kian Peng in Vientiane on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo

VIENTIANE — National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn had a meeting with his Singaporean counterpart Seah Kian Peng in Vientiane on October 19, on the sidelines on the ongoing 45th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-45).

Mẫn expressed his delight at the positive and substantive growth of the Việt Nam-Singapore relationship over the past more than 50 years of bilateral diplomatic relations and more than 10 years of strategic partnership with many important milestones in all fields and through all channels of Party, parliament, government, and people-to-people exchange.

Seah Kian Peng expressed sympathy to Việt Nam over the losses caused by Typhoon Yagi, saying that he hopes the support from Singapore can help Vietnamese people overcome difficulties and resume normal life.

Agreeing on Mẫn's assessments on the ties between the two countries, the Singaporean top legislator noted that high-ranking leaders have regularly visited each other. In the economic field, Singapore's investment in Việt Nam is very large. The two countries have conducted many exchange and connection activities in many fields, including personnel training, he said.

Noting that Singaporean investors are optimistic about Việt Nam's economic prospects, he emphasised that this is a basis for strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the coming time.

Mẫn thanked the Government and people of Singapore for supporting Việt Nam in overcoming the consequences of Typhoon Yagi.

He said that Singapore is a very important partner of Việt Nam, ranking second out of the 146 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam in many fields such as manufacturing-processing industry, real estate, and trade.

Mẫn noted that two-way trade reached US$6.8 billion in the first eight months of 2024, up 12.7 per cent year on year.

He thanked Singapore for supporting Việt Nam at inter-parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UPU), AIPA, and Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF).

Highlighting the great potential of cooperation between the two countries, Mẫn proposed to strengthen the bilateral cooperative relationship in the spirit of "good becoming better", bringing the ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in the coming time.

The two sides should increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level delegations of the National Assembly, young parliamentarians' groups, and female parliamentarians' groups, while continuing to promote their coordination mechanism at multilateral parliamentary forums such as IPU, AIPA, and APPF, and supporting each other's stance on regional and international issues, he suggested.

Mẫn took the occasion to invite Seah Kian Peng to visit Việt Nam at an appropriate time. — VNS