Bùi Thanh Sơn, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Việt Nam, during phone talks with Norwegian counterpart Ine Eriksen Soreide on Tuesday. — Photo from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese foreign minister Bùi Thanh Sơn and Norwegian counterpart Ine Eriksen Soreide had a telephone conversation regarding the two countries' relations and cooperation at the United Nations Security Council.

The two diplomats expressed pleasure at the growing ties between Việt Nam and Norway, especially with bilateral trade hitting US$500 million in 2020.

Foreign minister Sơn asked Norway to step up investment into fields of their strength such as maritime transport, shipbuilding, natural gas, renewable energy and aquaculture.

Regarding cooperation at multilateral forums, the two countries' foreign ministers highly valued the cooperation thus far between Việt Nam and Norway, which they see as a result of the two countries' support for multilateralism and international law and also the two countries' shared interests and priorities in women, peace and security, climate change, resolving bomb and mine issues, and protection of civilians in conflicts.

The Vietnamese foreign minister Sơn thanked Norway for its support during the month that Việt Nam holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.

The two foreign ministers shared their concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Syria, agreed on the maintenance of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country and pledged to further collaborate on this issue.

After being informed by foreign minister Sơn over ASEAN's efforts in stabilising the situation in Myanmar, Norwegian diplomat Soreide said would back ASEAN's role and hoped ASEAN would soon implement the five-point consensus reached during the ASEAN leaders' summit earlier this year.

Regarding the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, Vietnamese foreign minister Sơn invited the Norwegian counterpart to visit Việt Nam at the earliest and appropriate time and Soreide gladly accepted the invitation. — VNS