Deputy PM meets leaders of Venezuela and Iraq

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held a meeting on September 18 with leaders from Venezuela and Iraq on the side-lines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Venezuela.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held a meeting on September 18 with leaders from Venezuela and Iraq on the side-lines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Foreign leaders in attendance at the conference included Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and Iraq Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Shaiker Al-Jafari.

At the event, Deputy PM Minh and the Venezuelan and Iraqi leaders affirmed their commitment to bolster sustainable agriculture and energy cooperation projects during the period 2015-2018, areas for which Vietnam has a comparative advantage.

They  also discussed matters related to the East Sea and agreed with Vietnam’s stance of settling the dispute by peaceful means in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The two-day 17th NAM Summit began on the Venezuelan island of Margarita on September 17.

NAM comprises 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and two from Europe.

17 countries and 10 international organizations are observers at NAM, which came into being 55 years ago when leaders of 25 developing countries met at the 1961 Belgrade Conference.

The last NAM Summit was hosted by Iran in 2012.