Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Phạm Bình Minh with President of Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse in Hà Nội on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Văn Điệp

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Phạm Bình Minh received President of Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse in Hà Nội on Tuesday.
The delegation has been visiting the capital to attend the celebration of 30 years of co-operative ties between the two localities.
At the meeting, Minh noted with satisfaction that the Việt Nam-France strategic partnership was growing well. Notably, the two countries have regularly exchanged high-ranking delegations, including a visit to France by Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng in March 2018 and a trip to Việt Nam by French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in November the same year.
The Deputy PM highly valued the development of economic ties between the two countries with bilateral trade topping 5 billion euros each year. 
He added locality-to-locality co-operation and people-to-people exchange helped intensify the strategic partnership, matching the interests and demand of both nations. Ile-de-France was the first French locality to set up a partnership with Hà Nội, laying the foundation for developing co-operation between the two countries’ localities, Minh said.
The official also applauded the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of a start-up incubator named Hà Nội French City Lab to support Vietnamese and French start-ups in urban development, environment, smart city building and sustainable development, which are also the fields of France’s strength and Hà Nội’s demand.
Minh asked Pécresse to help accelerate the European Union (EU) and French parliaments' ratification of the free trade agreement and the investment protection agreement that Việt Nam and the EU signed in late June to bring about practical benefits for both sides.
For her part, Pécresse said the co-operation between Hà Nội and Ile-de-France was a model for other localities to follow.
During their stay in Hà Nội, the French delegation took part in the opening ceremony of an air quality monitoring station at the French Embassy, a workshop on cities and innovation, and the signing ceremony of co-operation documents between the two localities. — VNS