Party General Secretary Tô Lâm welcomed Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on Tuesday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee Tô Lâm hosted a reception in Hà Nội on Tuesday for Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck who is paying a state visit to Việt Nam.

At the reception, General Secretary Lâm warmly welcomed the King and Queen of Bhutan to Việt Nam and highly appreciated the significance of the first visit by a head of state between the two countries since they established their diplomatic relations.

The Party chief believed that the King's visit, accompanied by many high-ranking Bhutanese officials, is an important milestone, creating an opportunity to deepen the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Việt Nam and Bhutan more practically and effectively, meeting the interests of the two countries' people, and contributing responsibly to peace, stability and sustainable development in the region and the world.

General Secretary Lâm congratulated Bhutan on its impressive development achievements in national construction and development under the reign and leadership of the King. The Vietnamese leader applauded Bhutan's development model with its own unique characteristics that are admired by the world for its emphasis on environmental protection, preservation of cultural heritage and happiness for its people, making it one of the happiest countries in the world. It is a strategic and wise development vision, he noted.

The General Secretary said that the two countries share many similarities in development orientations and goals, and this creates conditions for strengthening bilateral cooperation in the coming time. He also affirmed that Việt Nam always supports Bhutan's development orientations and goals.

For his part, the Bhutanese King expressed his pleasure in paying his first state visit to Việt Nam, sincerely thanked the General Secretary, senior leaders and people of Việt Nam for their warm and respectful welcome, and admired the resilient and indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese people in the past struggle for national independence and Việt Nam's remarkable achievements in economic development today.

The King expressed his admiration for the vision, strategy and development orientation set forth by the Party General Secretary and Vietnamese leaders, and firmly believed that Việt Nam would realise its development goals. He emphasised that Bhutan considers Việt Nam one of its top priority partners in Southeast Asia, and wishes to strengthen multifaceted cooperation, and share and learn from Việt Nam's experiences.

The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the positive development of the friendship between Việt Nam and Bhutan over more than a decade of establishing diplomatic relations. The two sides emphasised that friendship and common points in culture and development philosophy are important foundations to continue to effectively exploit the potential and strengths of each country and promote extensive cooperation in the coming time, bringing common benefits and contributing to development, peace and stability in the region and the world.

General Secretary Lâm welcomed the results of the earlier talks between King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and State  President Lương Cường, in which the two sides agreed to continue to further strengthen trust and cohesion between the two countries, increase the exchange of high-level delegations, exchange experiences in national governance, create breakthroughs in economic, trade and investment cooperation; further expand cooperation in environmental protection, science and technology, innovation; encourage and promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural and Buddhist exchanges, creating favourable conditions for the people of the two countries to broaden their mutual understanding.

The two leaders agreed to cooperate more closely and increase mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations. General Secretary Lâm welcomed Bhutan to further strengthen its cooperative relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). VNA/VNS