Hanoi, 30 August 2021 (TDI): Last week, Foreign Minister of Vietnam Bui Thanh Son recently held telephone discussions with Foreign Ministers from Serbia, Nikola Selakovic, and from Australia, Marise Payne. Son and his counterparts discussed their bilateral relations, regional and common concerns, as well as Australia and Serbia’s aid of vaccine doses and medical supplies to Vietnam.
Son and Selakovic had a fruitful talk while agreeing to strengthen cooperation in priority fields, especially politics, diplomacy, economy, and trade. The two Ministers are also committed to expanding collaboration in potential spheres such as labor cooperation and information technology. Vietnam and Serbia had effective cooperation in the exchange of delegations at the ministerial level and political consultations at the deputy ministerial level as well as close coordination at international forums. The long-standing traditional friendship between Serbia and Vietnam for more than 60 years affirms the determination of both countries. That said, Selakovic announced to donate vaccines and medical equipment to support Vietnam’s fight against COVID-19. Also, Son took the invite to the 60th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement.
On the other hand, Son and Payne had a great talk discussing their strong Strategic Partnership (since 2018) and regional issues of common concern. The Strategic Partnership includes cooperation areas to strengthen ASEAN’s resilience, from enhancing regional values chains, high-quality infrastructure investment to climate change – aiming to expand cooperation across multiple domains. Also, as part of the ongoing commitment between Australia and Vietnam, Australia pledged to deliver more than 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam. Sharing it with the Pacific and Southeast Asia to over 2 million as part of Australia’s commitment to share at least 20 million doses with the region by mid-2022.
Son expressed his counterparts with pleasure for cooperation and timely vaccine support for the fight against COVID19.
