HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and US President Donald Trump expressed their satisfaction at increasingly substantive developments in the countries’ relations during their meeting in Hà Nội on Wednesday.

PM Phúc welcomed President Trump and his entourage on their visit to Việt Nam and lauded the significance of the second summit between the US and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in promoting denuclearisation and making sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula. He also applauded the US and the DPRK’s choice of Việt Nam as the venue for their summit.

The leader affirmed that Việt Nam always attaches importance to the partnership with the US in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of foreign relations, and integration into the world on the principle of respecting each other’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political regimes.

President Trump expressed his delight at meeting PM Phúc and visiting Việt Nam again. He thanked Việt Nam for its support for the DPRK - USA summit despite the short period of time for preparation.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed that bilateral relations have been growing in many fields, from politics-diplomacy, security-defence, education-training, to the settlement of war consequences. Notably, bilateral trade topped US$60 billion in 2018 with the US’s exports to Việt Nam surging by 46 per cent, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the fastest growing markets of the US.

To promote trade, they agreed to keep implementing existing co-operation mechanisms like the Việt Nam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement and the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.

The two sides will also continue discussing the possibility of upgrading bilateral trade-investment ties to match the development of their economic-trade relations and the nature of the comprehensive partnership, they added.

President Trump lauded Việt Nam’s active settlement of some prioritised trade issues, affirming his strong support for co-operation in this field for the sake of the two peoples.

The leaders also exchanged views on regional issues of shared concern. They voiced their support for the peaceful settlement of disputes in the East Sea in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the respect for all diplomatic and legal processes, the effective and full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and the early signing of a Code of Conduct in the waters. — VNS