Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh. Photo: VNA

(VOVworld) -  Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held separate meetings with his Filipino and Norwegian counterparts on the sidelines of the 10^th Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, Italy on Thursday. The Vietnamese FM and his Philippine counterpart Albert F. Del Rosario agreed that greater efforts are needed to elevate bilateral relations to new heights, advancing towards a strategic partnership level. They reached a consensus on stepping up connections for the successful formation of an ASEAN community by 2015, promoting the bloc’s central role, unity as well as its common voice to issues pertaining to regional peace and security, including the East Sea issue.

FM Minh and his Norwegian counterpart, Borge Brende, agreed to create favorable conditions for Norwegian investors to operate in Vietnam, especially in sectors of shipbuilding, energy, aquaculture, communications and human resource training. They added that the two countries need to work to speed up the completion of a Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association, which is composed of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The Norwegian FM praised Vietnam’s active participation in, and taking up important positions in international organizations, saying that Norway attaches importance to bolstering cooperation with Vietnam at the United Nations, ASEAN and ASEM.