Vietnamese NA Permanent Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong had separate meetings on October 13 with officials of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Myanmar’s parliament on the sidelines of the 141st Assembly of the IPU (IPU-141) in Belgrade, Serbia.

NA Permanent Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong (R) presents a gift
to IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong at the meeting in Belgrade,
Serbia, on October 13 (Photo: VNA) 

In the meeting with Secretary General of the IPU Martin Chungong, the Vietnamese legislator praised his important role and contributions to the IPU, especially in reforming activities of the union’s Secretariat and enhancing cooperation between the IPU and the UN towards promoting the role and voice of parliaments and parliamentarians in international issues.

She stressed that as a responsible member of IPU and with its experience, Vietnam will participate in all conferences, topics and fields to contribute to the success of the IPU-141 Assembly.

The participation in IPU activities is an important task in the Vietnamese NA’s multilateral diplomacy activities to promote and protect Vietnam's interests, express the country’s views on issues of the world’s common interests, thus contributing to improving the position of Vietnam in general and its NA in particular in the international arena.

Through this forum, Vietnam can access experience and good practices of parliaments around the world, Phong said, adding that Vietnam hopes to continue receiving support of the IPU Secretary General in the process.

Vietnam is committed to implementing plans and action programmes for the sake of sustainable development, towards improving material and spiritual life of the people, Phong said.

For his part, Chungong said he always supports Vietnam because Vietnam is one of the countries that always show strong responsibility and commitment to IPU’s programmes and action plans.

He highlighted the fruitful cooperation between IPU and the Vietnamese NA, saying that the Hanoi Declaration adopted by the IPU-132 in Hanoi in 2015 themed “Sustainable Development Goals: Turning Words into Action” is one of the directions for implementing the IPU's action plans.

The IPU will continue to support and closely coordinate with Vietnam to effectively implement the union’s programmes and action plans in the coming time, he affirmed.

Meeting with Than Win, Chairperson of the International Relations Committee of the Myanmar Parliament, the Vietnamese NA vice chairwoman congratulated Myanmar on its socio-economic achievements in recent years. She affirmed that Vietnam always supports and believes that Myanmar will successfully carry out national reconciliation, thus bringing prosperous development to the country.

She also underlined the development of the ties between the two countries’ legislative bodies in recent times, including their close coordination at international and regional parliament forums, especially in the framework of the IPU and the ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)

She proposed a cooperation channel between the groups of female parliamentarians of the two nations, and sharing of experience between the external relations committees of the two legislative bodies.

Phong said in 2020, Vietnam will assume the roles of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the term 2020-2021, Chair of the ASEAN and Chair of the AIPA 41 for 2019-2020, and asked the Government and the parliament of Myanmar to support Vietnam to well fulfill these important roles.

She asked Myanmar to support the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law.

On this occasion, Phong conveyed Vietnamese NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan’s invitation to the Speaker of Myanmar Parliament to attend the AIPA 41 General Assembly which will be held in Vietnam in August 2020.

In his reply, Than Win hoped that Vietnam will continue to support Myanmar's process of national reconciliation.

Regarding measures to promote cooperation between the two countries’ parliaments, he promised to report to the leader of Myanmar Parliament to consider the establishment of a cooperation channel between the groups of female parliamentarians of the two nations and the two parliaments’ external relations committees.