Widodo once again congratulated Nguyen upon his election as the State President of Viet Nam, affirming that Indonesia would like to take its traditional friendship and strategic partnership with Viet Nam to a new height.

For his part, Nguyen appreciated warm congratulations from Widodo, reassuring that Indonesia is always a close and trustworthy friend of Viet Nam.

The two Presidents concurred to enhance coordination and to exchange experience in COVID-19 response and effective vaccine access. Widodo lauded Viet Nam’s achievements in pandemic containment and socio-economic development.

The Vietnamese President shared with his counterpart difficulties facing Indonesia in the fight against COVID-19, and expressed his belief that Indonesia will soon put the pandemic under control and recover its economy.

On the occasion, Nguyen thanked the Indonesian side for the cooperation in supporting Vietnamese citizens affected by the pandemic, and called on Indonesia to further facilitate their health care, quarantine and treatment if necessary.

The pair commended that bilateral collaboration across spheres, especially economy and trade, has witnessed positive results. The two-way trade reached US$8.2 billion in 2020 and US$4.5 billion in the first five months of 2021 despite difficulties brought by COVID-19 pandemic.

They agreed to increase all-level exchanges and meetings in a flexible manner as well as effectively materialize bilateral cooperation mechanisms while promoting the implementation of Action Plan 2019-2023 in order to realize the Strategic Partnership and the Joint Vision on Defense Cooperation for 2017-2022.

For boosting post-pandemic economic recovery and development, the two leaders committed to instructing relevant agencies to promote trade so as to soon raising two-way trade to US$10 billion toward a balanced trade.

They consented that the two countries should limit the application of trade barriers, and should facilitate activities related to trade-investment-connectivity in general as well as the import-export of rice and other agricultural products in particular.

The two Presidents agreed to step up negotiations on the demarcation of overlapping exclusive economic zone as well as together address emerging issues in the spirit of Strategic Partnership and friendship.

They also exchanged views on regional and international issues of shared concern, including the East Sea and the Myanmar situation. Both sides agreed to enhance coordination at regional and multilateral organizations and forums.

Nguyen took the occasion to congratulate Indonesia on the assumption of G20 Presidency in 2022 for the first time, expressing his belief that the country would help promote and ensure ASEAN’s centrality, including cooperation priorities of the Association in the G20 agenda./.