Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (left) and President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader Corona co-chaired a joint press conference in Santo Domingo on the outcomes of their official talks. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

SANTO DOMINGO — Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader Corona chaired a joint press conference on November 20 morning (local time) to inform the outcomes of their talks and witnessed the signing of cooperation documents between the two countries.

At the press conference, in front of a large number of officials and reporters from both countries, President Abinader Corona once again warmly welcomed PM Chính and his spouse and the Vietnamese delegation to visit the Dominican Republic.

The President said that with the establishment of diplomatic relations and the establishment of its embassy in Việt Nam, the Dominican Republic hoped to accelerate its strategy of strengthening diplomatic relations with Việt Nam. Recently, Việt Nam and the Dominican Republic have promoted many cooperative activities and shared complementary activities in many fields, especially agriculture, in which Việt Nam has provided vaccines to prevent swine fever for the Dominican Republic.

According to President Abinader Corona, PM Chính's visit to the Dominican Republic this time is of important significance. The two leaders had talks and discussions to continue expanding and concretising cooperation agreements and at the same time, promote new agreements and cooperation between the two countries in fields such as defence, telecommunications, oil and gas, tourism and other fields with potential and needs of both sides for the benefit of both countries and their people.

PM Chính thanked President Abinader Corona for his respectful, sincere, and thoughtful welcome and believed that his visit to the Dominican Republic this time is historic, creating new momentum and opening a new page in Việt Nam - Dominican Republic relations.

Recalling the event that President Hồ Chí Minh met with revolutionary, Professor Juan Bosch, the first President of the Dominican Republic, when he came to Hà Nội to attend the Conference of Latin American countries to unite with Việt Nam in in 1965, PM Chính said that Việt Nam and the Dominican Republic had many similarities: similar ideals, all for national independence, happiness, and prosperity of the people.

According to the PM, the two economies can complement and promote mutual development. The two countries have unique cultures; have important geopolitics in the two regions of ASEAN and South America; have high political reliability; treasure friendship and value sincerity and trust; have the desire to build a strong, prosperous country with happy and prosperous people.

Emphasising that the above similarities are an important foundation for the two countries to promote cooperative relations to a new height, the PM proposed the two sides speed up negotiations, leading to the signing of four agreements including: Free trade agreement; Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement; Agreement on cultural, education-training and tourism cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and Agreement on Visas to create the best conditions for exchanges between the two countries.

Also according to the PM, the two sides discussed many potential areas of cooperation such as digital transformation, digital economy, building a digital society, telecommunications development; energy exploitation including oil and gas, solar energy, wind energy; agricultural cooperation, including vaccine production; creating conditions and promoting cooperation between businesses of the two countries.

PM Chính emphasised that in the context of the current international situation, the two sides agreed to call for solidarity and enhanced international cooperation, not only for the two countries and their people but for peace and cooperation and development in the regions and the world, especially Việt Nam will be a bridge for the Dominican Republic to cooperate with ASEAN and the Dominican Republic will work as a bridge for Việt Nam to cooperate with the South American region.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (left) and President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader Corona witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Diplomatic Academy of Việt Nam and the Diplomatic and Consular Academy of the Dominican Republic.. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

PM Chính conveyed the greetings, congratulations and invitations of General Secretary Tô Lâm, President Lương Cường, and the PM himself and National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn to the President and other leaders of the Dominican Republic to visit Việt Nam on the occasion of the 20th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2025.

Also at the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperation documents including: A Memorandum of Understanding on establishing the Việt Nam - Dominican Republic Joint Committee to promote trade and investment; A Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the Diplomatic Academy of Việt Nam and the Diplomatic and Consular Academy of the Dominican Republic.

Earlier, on the morning of the same day, PM Chính, his spouse, and the Vietnamese delegation attended a ceremony commemorating the founders of the Dominican Republic and laid a wreath at the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration in the capital of Santo Domingo together with the Dominican Republic's Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez. — VNA/VNS

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (left) and President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader Corona witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on establishing the Việt Nam - Dominican Republic Joint Committee to promote trade and investment. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang