Việt Nam and Belgium's Wallonie-Bruxelles on Wednesday signed the minutes of cooperation for the 2025-27 period. VNA/VNS Photo

BRUSSELS — Việt Nam and Belgium's Wallonie-Bruxelles on Wednesday signed the minutes of cooperation for the 2025-27 period, marking a milestone in bilateral relations.

The signing is an important outcome of the 12th meeting of the permenant joint committee between the Government of Việt Nam and the French-speaking community of Belgium (Wallonie-Bruxelles), the Wallonia region and the French Community Commission (COCOF) in the Brussels Capital Region. The November 18-19 meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Trần Quốc Phương, General Director of Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) Pascale Delcomminette. Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Nguyễn Văn Thảo attended the event.

Under the document, the cooperation programme, with 17 projects, will focus on common goals in priority areas, such as healthcare, environmental protection, logistics, human resource training, sustainable agriculture, French teaching, international law, climate change adaptation, and innovation research.

At the meeting, Delcomminette and Phương highly valued the results that two sides have achieved in human resources training, applied research and industrial development.

According to statistics on the cooperation programme for the 2022-24 period, the two sides have made 184 working trips, including 143 by Belgian experts to Việt Nam and 41 by Vietnamese experts to Belgium. In particular, the programme has granted 194 scholarships for Vietnamese students, lecturers, researchers and staff. Up to two-thirds of the scholarship recipients are women, of which more than half of the scholarships are dedicated to research, supporting the goals and activities of the projects in the programme. — VNS