Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ held online talks with Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin on Wednesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ held online talks with Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin on Wednesday.

The two leaders agreed Việt Nam and Singapore have close ties both bilaterally and within the framework of ASEAN and multilateral forums. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, both sides have offered mutual support at the national and regional level, including fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility.

They said the two countries have held the same stances and visions on maintaining ASEAN’s central role and solidarity.

The leaders said the Việt Nam-Singapore Industrial Parks have drawn more than US$14 billion in investment and generated more than 270,000 jobs, proving the countries have fruitful economic ties. Singapore is now the largest foreign investor in the country, showing its enterprises’ trust in Việt Nam.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they agreed to continue sharing experience, especially in accessing vaccines and adopting technological advances in pandemic prevention and control.

Both top legislators expressed their wish to boost the bilateral strategic partnership, including relations between the two legislatures.

They agreed to maintain meetings in different forms, working closely together at multilateral forums such as the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum and other multilateral parliamentary organisations, and supporting each other's stances on regional and global issues of shared concern.

Hue suggested discussing the possibility of mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, soon reaching an agreement on priority travelling mechanism, and resuming commercial flights when conditions allow.

He also proposed considering the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two legislatures to lay a legal foundation for cooperation, lifting legislative ties to be on par with the bilateral strategic partnership. More attention should be paid to upholding the role of the two law-making bodies in promoting bilateral ties.

Speaker Chuan-Jin agreed with Hue's proposals, saying the two countries’ mutual support in the region and multilateral forums play an extremely important role.

He stressed that ASEAN has an important position thanks to the collective power of each member state, including Viet Nam’s increasing stature in the region. — VNS