National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn (left) presents the book "80 Years of Việt Nam's National Assembly" to Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

ISTANBUL — Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn met with Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmus on Friday morning (local time), as part of his attendance at the 152nd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly (IPU-152) and bilateral activities in Istanbul.

The top Vietnamese legislator expressed his admiration for Türkiye’s cultural identity and its friendly, hospitable people, while highly valuing the European country’s growing role and position at multilateral forums and in regional mediation efforts. He affirmed that Việt Nam attaches importance to strengthening ties with Türkiye.

He conveyed regards from Party General Secretary and President Tô Lâm and Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng to President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Speaker Kurtulmus, and other Turkish leaders.

For his part, Kurtulmus congratulated Việt Nam’s leaders on their recent election to key positions, affirming that Việt Nam is an important partner of Türkiye in Southeast Asia. He expressed his desire to elevate bilateral ties between the two countries and thanked Chairman Mẫn for attending IPU-152, praising Việt Nam’s active and responsible contributions to international issues at the event.

Highlighting economic cooperation as a bright spot in the bilateral relations, Chairman Mẫn shared positive outcomes from his meeting with Turkish President Erdogan, and a Việt Nam–Turkey business forum. He proposed the two sides further open their markets and consider the early signing of a sustainable and balanced free trade agreement (FTA), facilitating market access for each country’s key export products while reducing trade barriers.

Agreeing with these proposals, Speaker Kurtulmus suggested expanding cooperation in areas of mutual strength and potential such as defence industry, logistics, and air and maritime connectivity.

The two leaders agreed to enhance parliamentary cooperation through promoting all-level delegation exchanges, closer engagement between friendship parliamentary groups, and sharing of legislative and supervision experiences to create a favourable legal framework for bilateral collaboration, thus further deepening the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between Việt Nam and Türkiye.

They also pledged to coordinate closely at parliamentary forums and other multilateral forums and organisations, step up the exchange of views, and support each other’s candidacies, particularly at the United Nations and related organisations.

Chairman Man took this occasion to invite Speaker Kurtulmus to visit Việt Nam in the time to come. The Turkish leader accepted the invitation with pleasure, saying he will arrange the visit at an appropriate time. — VNA/VNS