Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc pledged that Viet Nam is willing to be the long-term and stable rice supplier of the Philippines, during his phone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday. 

The Government chief thanked for the support and contribution of the Philippines and President Duterte to the success of the online Special ASEAN and ASEAN+3 Summits last April.

He highly valued the Philippines’ efforts in containing the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigating its impacts, expressing thanks  to the Philippine Government for having facilitated the arrangement of two flights to bring nearly 400 Vietnamese citizens home.

President Duterte hailed Viet Nam as an effective model of COVID-19 containment, welcoming the nation's initiatives to rally collective responses to COVID-19  within ASEAN region and between ASEAN and its partners in accordance with the “Cohesive and Responsive” theme of Viet Nam’s 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship.

The two leaders agreed to further strengthen the bilateral ties in a substantial maner through coordinated efforts to fruitfully realize the action plan guiding the implementation of the Viet Nam-Philippines Strategic Partnership for the period 2019-2024 and regular maintenance of the sides’ cooperative mechanisms, especially the joint committee for bilateral cooperation between the two foreign ministries.

The pair agreed to step up coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums. President Duterte vowed to continue strong support for Viet Nam to successfully undertake the dual role as the current ASEAN Chair and non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council while PM Phuc spoke highly of the Philippines’ role and contribution as the coordinator of the ASEAN-China relations.

The leaders underlined the significance of further consolidation of the ASEAN’s solidarity and common positions over the East Sea issue as well as active acceleration of negotiations to reach a substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, contributing to maintaining peace, stability and security in the region./.