Swiss President Ueli Maurer welcomes Vice President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh (L). — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

BERN — Việt Nam wants to boost its ties with Switzerland, Vice President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh said while meeting with Swiss President Ueli Maurer in Bern on Wednesday.

Expressing her delight over sound relations between the two nations, particularly in politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, education-training and co-operation for development, she thanked the European country for supporting Việt Nam's successful run for a non-permanent spot on the UN Security Council (UNSC) during 2020-21.

Việt Nam wants to boost collaboration and share experience with Switzerland to fulfill its mission at the UNSC, she added.

Maurer, for his part, spoke highly of Việt Nam’s socio-economic development and global integration achievements, and congratulated Việt Nam on winning the UNSC seat.

He said Switzerland treasures relations with Việt Nam and hoped Việt Nam would continue acting as a responsible and proactive member of international organisations.

At the meeting, both sides agreed to enhance collaboration at multilateral forums, particularly the UN. 

They also decided to hold more exchanges of high-ranking delegations to drive bilateral ties, including the upcoming visit to Việt Nam by head of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research Guy Parmelin. They also discussed the negotiations of the trade deal between Việt Nam and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), in which Switzerland plays an important role.

They said they hoped the trade deal would be signed soon.

Vice President Thịnh said Switzerland is an important trade-investment and development partner in Europe, saying the Vietnamese Government is working to facilitate long-term operations of Swiss companies in fields of Việt Nam’s needs, like finance-banking, insurance, manufacturing industry, pharmacy, agricultural processing and tourism.

Lauding Switzerland’s contributions to global peace, security and development, Thịnh hoped the country would continue its support for Việt Nam and ASEAN to settle disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means, on the basis of international regulations, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 (UNCLOS 1982).

To that end, they agreed to co-ordinate to ensure the respect of international laws globally.

Thịnh took the occasion to convey Party General Secretary, President Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s invitation to the Swiss President to visit Việt Nam soon.

The vice president visited headquarters of ABB Group in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday and had a working session with the group’s leaders.

Vice President Thịnh is in Switzerland to attend the 2019 Global Summit of Women from July 3-7. — VNS