Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng meets with her Dutch counterpart Marcel de Vink in Hà Nội on June 1. —Photo from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng and her Dutch counterpart Marcel de Vink co-chaired the second deputy foreign ministerial-level political consultation between the two countries in Hà Nội on Monday.

The two sides updated each other on developments in their respective countries and reviewed bilateral cooperation results since the previous consultation. They expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far in delegation exchanges at various levels, close coordination and mutual support for each other's initiatives and candidacy at regional and international forums, efforts to facilitate business activities, and the effective use of existing mechanisms to address issues in bilateral relations.

Sharing Việt Nam’s development orientation for the new period, Hằng highlighted the country’s goals of becoming a developing nation with modern industry and upper-middle-income status by 2030 and a developed, high-income country by 2045. To achieve these objectives, Việt Nam will focus on maintaining fast and sustainable growth during 2026–30, driven by science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

Given this, she called for deeper and more substantive implementation of the Netherlands–Việt Nam Comprehensive Partnership and their sectoral strategic partnerships.

The Vietnamese deputy minister proposed that the two sides further promote trade and investment cooperation, noting the Netherlands remains one of Việt Nam’s leading partners in Europe. Việt Nam hopes the Netherlands will continue to be a reliable partner in sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, and the circular economy development while expanding collaboration Việt Nam’s priority areas, including digital transformation, green transition, science–technology, and innovation.

Hằng also called on the Netherlands and the remaining EU member states to soon ratify the EU–Việt Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), and support the European Commission's early removal of the "yellow card" warning over IUU fishing for Vietnamese seafood exports.

For his part, the Dutch official highly valued Việt Nam’s socio-economic development achievements and affirmed that his country attaches great importance to its cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation, which it regards as an important and trustworthy partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

Expressing his impression of Việt Nam’s ambitious development goals, he affirmed the Netherlands’ wish to accompany Việt Nam in translating those goals into reality.

Building on the positive outcomes of bilateral cooperation, Marcel de Vink agreed with his host’s proposals to enhance exchanges and dialogue at all levels and strengthen coordination at multilateral forums.

He said the Netherlands is interested in sending large-scale business delegations to Việt Nam to explore cooperation and investment opportunities and will continue supporting Việt Nam’s green and digital transitions as well as circular economy development. He also welcomed cooperation expansion in science–technology, high technology, the semiconductor industry, artificial intelligence, high-quality human resources training, and the implementation of joint research programmes.

In the fields of security–defence, justice, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges, the two sides agreed to continue promoting the existing effective cooperation activities, consider new cooperation agreements, and expand ties in capacity building, experience sharing, and professional training. They encouraged stronger cultural, tourism, locality-to-locality, business, and people-to-people links.

On regional and international issues of mutual concern, both sides reaffirmed their support for multilateralism and free trade, and underscored the importance of settling disputes and conflicts by peaceful means in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter.

They also stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight in line with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). — VNA/VNS