Party General Secretary Tô Lâm (right) meets with Azerbaijani PM Ali Asadov on May 8. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

BAKU — General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Tô Lâm had a meeting with Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov, as part of his state visit to the Central Asian country.

General Secretary Lâm expressed his pleasure to visit Azerbaijan and emphasised that the good traditional friendship between the two countries was laid by late President Hồ Chí Minh and President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, and nurtured and strongly developed by many generations of leaders and people of the two countries.

The General Secretary affirmed the Party, State and people of Việt Nam always remember and are grateful for the valuable support and assistance that the Azerbaijani people have given to Việt Nam in the past struggle for independence and national reunification as well as in the current process of national construction and development, and stressed that Việt Nam always attaches importance to and wants to further deepen relations with Azerbaijan in all fields.

He was pleased to inform PM Asadov of the results of his intensive and extensive talks with President Ilham Aliyev, which provided guidance on all aspects of the bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues. The two sides had also agreed and adopted a Joint Statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership between Việt Nam and Azerbaijan.

General Secretary Lâm emphasised that this was a historic milestone, opening a new era in the bilateral relations, creating a strong driving force to promote increasingly substantive and effective cooperation, especially in areas such as economy, trade, investment, energy, defence, education, culture, and people-to-people exchange.

For his part, PM Asadov warmly welcomed and highly appreciated the state visit to Azerbaijan by General Secretary Lâm, affirming that the trip demonstrated political trust and remarkable development in the bilateral relations.

He assessed that the talks between President Ilham Aliyev and the Vietnamese Party chief ere successful in all aspects with the two sides signing a series of cooperation documents in many fields.

On this occasion, PM Asadov also expressed his admiration for Việt Nam's impressive socio-economic development achievements in recent times in various fields, and affirmed that Azerbaijan always attaches importance to developing multi-faceted cooperation with Việt Nam and considers Việt Nam one of the top priority partners in Southeast Asia.

At the meeting, in the spirit of the Strategic Partnership that the two sides have just agreed on, the two leaders agreed to promote the role of the two countries' National Assemblies in coordinating, supporting and urging ministries and sectors to promote bilateral economic-trade and investment cooperation with five main groups of solutions, including promoting cooperation in traditional fields, with energy - oil and gas as the spearhead; enhancing the operational efficiency and the coordinating role of the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic - Trade and Scientific - Technical Cooperation; further stepping up the information work, trade promotion, and connection of the business communities of the two countries; encouraging and facilitating investment activities, especially in the fields of agriculture and food safety; and beefing up cooperation in education and training.

The two sides also agreed to promote a number of cooperation focuses in the coming time, including increasing meetings and exchanges of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones; actively implementing high-level agreements that have been reached as well as enhancing coordination of actions at international and regional organisations.

They held that in the context of the rapidly changing world and regional situation, the upgrade of the bilateral ties to the Strategic Partnership between Việt Nam and Azerbaijan is of great significance, developing the bilateral relations in more effective and substantial manner, thus meeting the fundamental interests of the people of the two countries.

The two sides also expressed their belief that with the determination and goodwill of General Secretary Tô Lâm and President Ilham Aliyev, the newly-established Strategic Partnership between the two countries will bring about concrete results, for the benefit of the two nations’ people and for peace, stability, cooperation and common prosperity of the region and the world.

On this occasion, General Secretary Tô Lâm also conveyed greetings and an invitation to visit Việt Nam from PM Phạm Minh Chính to PM Ali Asadov. — VNA/VNS