(VOVworld) – Vietnam and Thailand on Wednesday issued a joint statement on the official visit to Thailand by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

The joint statement says that during his visit to Thailand from June 25 to 27, Party leader Trong had bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Speaker of the parliament Somsak Kiatsuranont, President of the Senate Nikom Waratpanij, and leaders of political parties, businesses and the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association. The party leader received the honorary Doctor of Philosophy Degree at Thammasat university, met some of the Vietnamese community and visited economic and cultural facilities in Bangkok and Nakhon Phanom province.

During talks between Trong and Shinawatra, both leaders agreed to boost exchanges and cooperation between their political parties, including the exchanges of information, and management experiences, while strengthening political dialogue at all levels and people-to-people exchanges.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at a media conference

The two leaders agreed to elevate the Vietnam-Thailand relationship to that of a strategic partnership, opening new prospects for closer ties for mutual benefits, regional peace, stability and development as well as contributing to the building of a united and strong ASEAN community. Based on the existing cooperative framework, the two leaders agreed to boost the strategic partnership in the following areas:

-         Political relations: Strengthening mutual trust and understanding through the exchange of high-level visits and strategic political dialogue; maintaining the strong political relationship to create a firm foundation for development and cooperation in other areas.

-         Defense and security cooperation: Strengthening, expanding and enhancing the effectiveness of defense and security cooperation, boosting cooperation in dealing with traditional and nontraditional security challenges, advancing cooperation in consular work; reaffirm commitments to prohibiting any individual or organization from using each other’ a territories to conduct acts hostile to the other country.

-         Economic cooperation: Strengthening cooperation in investment, trade, energy, telecommunications, information technology and transportation, increasing two-way trade to 15 billion USD by 2020; promoting transport links between the two countries, particularly the East-West corridor, road No8 and road No12.

-         Socio-cultural and people-to-people cooperation: Establishing centers for the studies of Vietnam and Thailand in each country’s universities; strengthening cooperation in labour, enhancing the role of friendship organization, the Vietnamese community in Thailand and the Thai community in Vietnam; accelerating local-level cooperation and people-to-people exchanges through the Vietnam-Thailand Friendship Association and the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association.

Concerning international and regional cooperation, the two sides agreed to increase joint efforts to build an ASEAN community with close links in politics, economics and social responsibility to further enhance its role in the regional architecture for peace, cooperation and development in the region. The two leaders agreed to foster cooperation in regional forums including the Mekong forum with development partners, boost regional and sub-regional economic development and narrow the development gap in Southeast Asia. They agreed to support each other’s candidates at the United Nations, regional and international organizations.

To implement the strategic partnership, they agreed to assign the two countries’ foreign ministries to work with other related ministries and agencies to formulate programs of action on the above mentioned issues for further discussion at the next session of the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation co-chaired by the two Foreign Ministers.

The two leaders committed to fostering bilateral relations to contribute to building an ASEAN community and increase ASEAN’s frameworks such as the ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, regional forums and ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meetings. They also agreed to boost consultations and cooperation at regional and international multilateral forums.

The leaders agreed on the need for more cooperation to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea; increase mutual trust and understanding by intensifying maritime cooperation and security, including the liberalization of maritime transport and transits; show restraint over the use of force; settle disputes by peaceful means based on international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and the Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

The two leaders stressed the need to cooperate in enforcing measures to protect joint water resources for sustainable development and conduct research on the sustainable use of the Mekong River’s water resources.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong invited Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to visit Vietnam. The timing of the visit will be arranged through diplomatic channels.