The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that on the morning of August 5 (local time), within the framework of the State visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt, right after the solemn welcoming ceremony held at the Presidential Palace, Politburo member and President Luong Cuong and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi held short talks and official talks.
At the talks, the two leaders affirmed their determination to create a breakthrough for bilateral cooperation in all fields. On that basis, the two sides agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to Comprehensive Partnership.
The two leaders also discussed opportunities to expand cooperation to new areas such as innovation, science and technology, green transformation, digital transformation, etc., and agreed to continue perfecting bilateral legal frameworks to create a foundation for comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.
In order to promote balanced and mutually beneficial trade between the two sides, President Luong Cuong said that Vietnam agreed in principle to open markets for some of the items of interest to the Egyptian market and suggested that Egypt facilitate Vietnamese goods to access the Egyptian market.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi affirmed that with its position as connecting the three continents and through its extensive network of free trade agreements, Egypt is ready to act as a bridge for Vietnamese businesses and goods to access the Middle East and Africa markets, and agreed to discuss the possibility of establishing new bilateral trade cooperation frameworks, thereby contributing to increasing trade turnover in the coming time.
The two sides agreed to establish a Working Group to study the possibility of negotiating the Vietnam - Egypt Free Trade Agreement.
The two leaders agreed to promote educational cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, enhance tourism promotion connections, and promote destinations, cultures, and people of both sides.
Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, President Luong Cuong highly appreciated the intermediary and mediation role of Egypt in finding solutions to conflicts in the region.
The Egyptian President welcomed Vietnam's stance on the just struggle of the Palestinian people and agreed that promoting the two-state solution is an important goal to achieve sustainable, long-term peace in the Middle East.
Regarding the East Sea issue, the two leaders affirmed their support for the settlement of disputes by peaceful means on the basis of respect for international law, the United Nations Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to ensure peace, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea.
After the talks, President Luong Cuong and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi witnessed the signing of many important cooperation documents, including the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and International Cooperation of Egypt on economic cooperation, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Home Affairs of Vietnam and the Ministry of Local Development of Egypt on cooperation in the field of local development.
The two countries' Ministries of National Defense have also signed a Protocol on defense cooperation and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnam Peacekeeping Department and the contacts with Egyptian international organizations.
Leaders of ministries, branches and enterprises of both sides also had meetings and reached many other agreements in the fields of finance, agricultural trade and oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
