On the afternoon of August 19, at the Party Central Committee Headquarters, General Secretary To Lam received King Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on the occasion of the King's state visit to Vietnam.
At the meeting, General Secretary To Lam warmly welcomed the King of Bhutan and his Queen to visit, highly appreciating the significance of the first head of state visit between the two countries since the establishment of diplomatic relations.
The General Secretary believes that the King's visit, accompanied by many senior Bhutan officials, is an important milestone, creating an opportunity to deepen the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Bhutan into depth, practicality and effectiveness.
General Secretary To Lam congratulated Bhutan on its impressive development achievements in the cause of national construction and development, under the reign and leadership of the King; welcomed the development model of Bhutan with its own unique characteristics, which are admired by the world for promoting environmental protection, cultural heritage conservation and happiness for the people, being one of the "happiest countries in the world"; considering it a strategic and wise development vision.
The General Secretary said that the two countries share many similarities in development orientations and goals and this creates conditions to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the coming time; affirmed that Vietnam always supports Bhutan's development orientations and goals.
King Bhutan Jigme expressed his joy at his first state visit to Vietnam; expressed his admiration for the vision, strategy and development orientation that the General Secretary and Vietnamese leaders raised, and expressed his confidence that Vietnam will certainly realize its development goals.
The King emphasized that Bhutan considers Vietnam one of the top priority partners in Southeast Asia, and wishes to strengthen multifaceted cooperation, share and learn from Vietnam's experiences.
The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the positive development of the friendly relations between Vietnam and Bhutan in more than a decade of establishing diplomatic relations.
The two sides emphasized that friendship and commonalities in culture and development philosophy are an important foundation for the two sides to continue to effectively exploit the potential and strengths of each country and promote extensive cooperation in the coming time, bringing common benefits and contributing to the development, peace and stability in the region and the world.
General Secretary To Lam welcomed the results of the talks between the King of Bhutan and the President of Vietnam, in which the two sides agreed to continue to further enhance trust and solidarity between the two countries, increase the exchange of high-level delegations, exchange experiences in national governance, create breakthroughs in economic, trade and investment cooperation; further expand cooperation in environmental protection, science and technology, innovation; encourage people-to-people exchanges, cultural and Buddhist exchanges, create favorable conditions for the people of the two countries to expand their understanding of each other.
