The eighth meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group took place at the Vatican on August 21-22.

At the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group in Hanoi in 2018
(Photo: VNA)

The event was co-chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung, head of the Vietnamese delegation, and Deputy Foreign Minister Antoine Camilleri, head of the Vatican delegation.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed in depth about the relations between Vietnam and Vatican, including issues related to the Vietnam Catholic Church.

They recognised the positive development in the bilateral relations, especially the increasing regular exchanges between the two sides, as seen through the 7th meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group in December 2018 in Hanoi and consultations between the Vietnamese inter-sectoral working groups and the Vatican’s non-resident Special Envoy Archbishop Marek Zalewski. 

The Vietnamese side affirmed that the State of Vietnam has consistently implemented and continuously improved the policy of respecting and ensuring the freedom of belief and religion of people as well as creating the best possible conditions for the Vietnamese Catholic community to operate and develop.

The Vatican side appreciated the Vietnamese State’s attention to the Catholic Church and reiterated the hope that the Vietnamese Catholic community will follow the motto of good Catholics being good citizens and make active contributions to the country’s development and prosperity, implement well the Church’s teachings, and abide by Vietnam’s law.

Discussing Catholic activities, the two sides agreed on measures to promote the bilateral relations, focusing on perfecting the operational regulations of the Vatican’s resident special envoy and the resident special envoy office in Vietnam so as to implement them as soon as possible.

They agreed to uphold the spirit of dialogue based on respecting the agreed principles and emphasised the need to increase all-level delegation exchanges, especially at high level, in the coming time.

During their stay in Vatican, the Vietnamese delegation paid courtesy calls to Pope Francis, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher.