UK pledges assistance to Vietnam’s climate change commitment
Speaker of the UK House of Lords John Mcfall said he supports efforts to ramp up all-round cooperation between the UK and Vietnam, including in climate change response, during his talks with the top Vietnamese legislator in London.
Meeting with visiting National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue of Vietnam on June 29, Mcfall praised Vietnam’s net zero emission commitment at the recent 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and affirmed that the UK supports and assists Vietnam in meeting its commitment.
National Assembly Chairman Hue thanked the group of seven, including the UK, for choosing Vietnam as the first three countries to support the implementation of COP26 commitments.
He underscored the need to strike a balance between benefits and costs in implementing the commitments, and hoped that the British side would share its experience in the domain, especially in policymaking.
Talking about bilateral trade and investment ties, Hue noted the UK is currently Vietnam’s third largest trading partner in the European market and its leading European investor. However, he said British investment in Vietnam only reached about US$4 billion, or just 1% of the total foreign investment Vietnam has attracted.
The two sides agreed that both Vietnam and the UK have made great strides in raising their trade to the current level of billion. Yet, the two countries need to continue promoting the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) and creating favourable conditions for British businesses to expand investment in Vietnam, especially in green finance, pharmaceuticals, health care, digital technology, education, innovative start-ups, infrastructure construction, and clean energy.
Hue also said that Vietnam wants to learn about the UK’s experience in developing its London financial centre in order to build a similar model in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam.
Both host and guest consented that Vietnam and the UK should to strengthen comprehensive and substantive relations bilaterally and multilaterally, especially when the UK is already a full dialogue partner of ASEAN. They agreed to maintain dialogues and exchange of delegations, especially through the parliamentary channel to increase the efficiency of cooperation.
The two sides expressed their satisfaction that progress has been made in bilateral cooperation in defense - security, science – technology, education and training. Currently, Vietnam has 12,000 students studying in the UK and the UK has developed many high-quality joint training programmes in Vietnam.
They agreed to increase student exchange and focus on increasing the quantity and quality of training following the presence of well-known British universities in Vietnam.
Exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, the two sides stressed the need for closer cooperation in solving global problems, on the basis of respect for international law.
They were pleased to see that Vietnam and the UK have closely coordinated at multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the ASEAN-UK cooperation framework. Vietnam always supports the UK in increasing cooperation with ASEAN, while the UK supports ASEAN’s central role and is an important bridge between Vietnam and the EU.
The two leaders acknowledged the positive cooperation between the National Assembly of Vietnam and the British House of Lords over the past time and agreed to promote the role of the two parliaments in fostering relations between the Governments and peoples of the two countries.
Chairman Hue cordially invited President Mcfall to visit Vietnam, and the invitation was accepted with pleasure.
