Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made the remarks during talks on Thursday (local time) with Vietnamese Vice President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh who is paying an official visit to the South American country from July 13-16. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Colombia regards Việt Nam as a key partner in Southeast Asia and wants to enhance win-win co-operation between the two countries.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made the remarks during talks on Thursday (local time) with Vietnamese Vice President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh who is paying an official visit to the South American country from July 13-16.

Thịnh’s visit was the highest-level visit since Việt Nam and Colombia established diplomatic ties in January 1979.

Both host and guest discussed measures to increase the bilateral collaboration as well as exchanged regional and international issues of shared concerns.

They evaluated that the bilateral relations had continually thrived across the fields with consolidated political ties and mutual trust.

Two-way trade reached over US$364 million in 2015, a nine-fold increase against 10 years ago, they noted.

The two leaders suggested soon establishing a joint committee on co-operation in economics-trade, investment and science-technology between the two governments along with maintaining and increasing high-level visit exchanges between delegations, ministries, localities and businesses.

They also urged the two countries to speed up negotiations to reach the signing of agreements to improve the legal framework in bilateral cooperation.

The same day, Thịnh had a working session with Colombian Vice President German Vargas Lleras, during which they affirmed to implement agreements to deepen the bilateral friendship and co-operation.

Earlier, Thịnh and Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria Angela Holguin witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and seafood between Việt Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and its Colombian counterpart, along with a cultural co-operation programme in 2017-2019 between Việt Nam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Colombia’s Ministry of Culture.

At a meeting with Vice President of the Senate of Colombia, Nidia Marcela Osorio, Thịnh was told that the Colombian Congress hopes to further collaboration with the Vietnamese National Assembly in supporting the Governments’ measures to enhance bilateral co-operative ties. — VNS