Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on Monday held a bilateral minister-level dialogue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sideline of the UN General Assembly session aimed at raising bilateral relations between the two countries to a higher level.
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| Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (Second from L) at the opening of the Vietnamese Consulate in New York. |
The United States is an important strategic partner of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister told many foreign delegations at the meeting on Sunday evening.
The Vietnamese Minister stated that the two countries’ ties have been increasingly developed and expanded in both regional and international issues on political, economic, security and defense sectors.
It’s time to raise the bilateral relations to a higher level, Minh stressed.
During the visit to Hanoi last July, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested building a strategic bilateral relationship to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the US.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Ambassador to the United States, also said building the bilateral strategic relationship is his major task during his term.
The Vietnamese Foreign Minister asserted that Vietnamese people at home and abroad will contribute to the protection of national sovereignty within the country’s exclusive economic zone and in Truong Sa and Hoang Sa islands whatever it costs.
Minh added that Vietnam will solve the water disputes with other countries by complying with the Charter and Convention of the United Nations on the law of the sea and The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).
On this occasion, the Vietnamese foreign minister officially opened a Vietnamese consulate in New York.
The overseas Vietnamese have so far invested 650 projects in Vietnam at total cost of around US$300 million. The overseas remittances to Vietnam also reach billions of US dollars every year.
Minh stressed that the overseas Vietnamese communities are integral parts of the country and hailed their contributions to the development of the nation.
Minh said the newly-opened consulate will contribute to strengthening the economic partnership between the countries.