Party General Secretary To Lam meets with French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: VNA

On Monday in Hanoi the party leader met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who emphasized that Vietnam is important to France's Indo-Pacific policy. This special relationship has gone through different stages in history and is currently built on a foundation of high trust and mutual respect, he said.

Recognizing that the Vietnam-France Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework is a bright spot amid the rapidly evolving and complex world situation, the two leaders agreed to continue to prioritize cooperation in politics-diplomacy, defense-security including cyber security.

They also agreed to boost economy-trade-investment, maritime economy, development cooperation and people-to-people exchange including culture, education and training, and promote the signing of major cooperation agreements.

The two sides stressed the need to ramp up cooperation in energy transition, with France supporting Vietnam within the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), expand cooperation in nuclear energy, human resource training and peaceful atomic applications such as for medical purpose, and initiate key projects that are new symbols of cooperation in Vietnam’s new era of development.

The two leaders also agreed to strengthen cooperation in strategic infrastructure, urban transport and railways to achieve the goals in the new era of development and prosperity of the Vietnamese people.