PARIS - France wants to strengthen the strategic partnership with Việt Nam, French President Emmanuel Macron said while holding talks with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng in Paris yesterday. 

The ongoing official visit to France by the Party leader and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation was taking place at a special time in the bilateral relationship, he said. 
He said he highly valued the socio-economic development achievements of Việt Nam over the past years. 
Trọng said he was glad to visit France again and thanked the French President, authorities and people for their warm welcome. 
He said he appreciated the role and position of France in Europe and the world, saying Việt Nam considered the development of friendly co-operation with France a top priority in its external affairs policy. 
He took the occasion to thank France for supporting Việt Nam in all aspects. 
The two leaders informed each other about the situation in each country and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, especially security matters. 
They agreed that disputes should be addressed via peaceful means and international law and countries’ roles and responsibilities should be promoted for regional peace, security and development. 
The two sides discussed measures to establish frameworks to create new momentum for a deeper strategic partnership, opening a new development period for bilateral relations. 
They underlined the long-standing special relationship between Vietnam and France and their historical, cultural and social closeness. They also expressed pleasure at the development of diplomatic ties over the last 45 years and the five-year strategic partnership. 
The two countries are witnessing the strongest development period with a comprehensive and effective cooperation foundation created in all fields, serving as an important driving force to elevate their ties to a new height. 
To step up strategic cooperation in all fields, the two leaders agreed to maintain and increase high-level contacts and meetings, improve the efficiency of dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, expand cooperation across the board, increase people-to-people exchange and locality-to-locality partnership, and boost coordination on regional and international issues of mutual concern. 
The French President asked Việt Nam to provide favourable conditions for French businesses to invest and implement cooperation projects in Việt Nam, enhance cooperation in defence and security and personnel training, and boost parliamentary cooperation. 
The Party chief welcomed and noted France’s requests and expressed his wish that Vietnam would receive efficient assistance and cooperation from France. 
The two leaders shared the view that economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries had grown positively, but it was yet to reach the potential created by their political ties and strong desire for further growth.
As such, they agreed to step up practical measures to boost trade, speed up important cooperation projects on telecommunications, energy, aviation, safe water, climate change and the environment and seek supportive measures to enable their businesses’ market entry. 
They shared the view that the two countries were enjoying conditions to boost cooperation in investment in high technology, clean energy, organic agriculture and digital industry. 
Measures to boost cooperation in science-technology, healthcare, energy and education and training were on the table as well. The French President suggested the establishment of French schools in Vietnam. 
Both sides affirmed their desire to make Việt Nam-France friendship cooperation a part of the multilateral spaces like the EU and ASEAN. They agreed to speed up the signing and ratification of the free trade deal between Việt Nam and the EU in 2018, creating new momentum for economic, trade and investment collaboration between the two nations. 
The two leaders hailed significant contributions made by the Vietnamese community in France to the bilateral ties. Party General Secretary Trọng hoped that France would continue support for the Vietnamese nationals in the country so that they could further contribute to relations.
On the occasion, the Party chief invited the French President to visit Việt Nam at a convenient time. The later accepted the invitation with pleasure. 
The same day, Emmanuel Macron held a grand banquet for the Vietnamese Party leader and the high-ranking delegation from Việt Nam. Also, the two leaders witnessed the signing of some significant cooperation deals and met with the press. — VNS