Hanoi (VNA) – President Tran Dai Quang held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani following the welcome ceremony in Hanoi on October 6, expressing his belief that the visit will generate a fresh driving force to promote bilateral ties for the benefit of 🌠the two peoples.

President Quang stressed that the visit reflects Iranian leaders’ determination to further deepen friendly relations between the two countries. President Rouhani, who is on the Vietnam visit from October 5-7, congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in diverse areas, including maintained social security, sustainable growth and enhanced regional and global economic integration. Both leaders expressed their pleasure with the development of Vietnam-Iran relations since the establishment of their diplomatic ties more than 40 years ago, especially following the Iranian visit by former President Truong Tan Sang in March 2016. They discussed measures and orientations to further tightening political links, giving priority to extending economic ties in order to make the bilateral relationship more practical and deeper. On the political front, the two sides agreed to continue the tradition of granting each other mutual support for prosperity in the two countries, and peace in the region and the world, and underscored the need to increase the exchange of visits on the State, National Assembly, Government, local and business channels, as well as effectively uphold existing mechanisms such as the Inter-Governmental Committee and political consultation. Host and guest said developing countries need to enhance cooperation, maintain peace and stability in Southeast Asia and West Asia for the common benefit of the international community. They agreed to strengthen consultation on regional and global issues on the basis of general principles accepted by the international community. President Rouhani affirmed that Iran highly values ties with Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries. The Iranian side thanked Vietnam for backing Iran in joining the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Economic partnership was a focus at the talks. The two sides vowed to facilitate their enterprises’ access to each other’s market to seek business and investment opportunities. They discussed measures to soon reach 2 billion USD in trade revenue, including setting up payment mechanisms between the two countries’ banks, and promoting investment cooperation in such potential fields as oil and gas, petrochemical products, and construction materials. Iran said they want to invest in oil refining and petroleum chemistry, thermal power, infrastructure building, medicine production, agriculture and aquaculture in Vietnam. President Rouhani suggested both sides consider planting Iran’s rice varieties in Vietnam to export back to his country. The two sides also mulled over many measures to enhance the export of Vietnam’s rice to Iran at the talks. The visiting leader considered a telecommunication agreement as an important foundation for the two countries to boost collaboration in this domain. President Quang agreed on his guest’s suggestions, adding that their countries should bolster ties in areas like information technology, telecommunications and oil and gas, which boast huge cooperation potential at present. He asked Iran to provide favourable conditions for Vietnamese firms such as Viettel, VNPT and FPT to implement their business projects in the Islamic Republic. He also welcomed Iranian enterprises to invest in Vietnam. During the talks, the leaders also looked into affiliation in defence, security, agriculture, education-training, science, high technology, culture and tourism, along with locality-to-locality partnerships. They pledged to promote relevant ministries’ implementation of the outcomes of this visit to maintain the growth momentum in bilateral relations. They agreed to soon organise the ninth meeting of the Vietnam – Iran Inter-Governmental Committee so as to carry out the agreements reached at during the visit. Following the talks, the two Presidents witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in information and communications and an agreement on visa exemption for official passport holders. On this occasion, President Rouhani invited his Vietnamese counterpart to visit Iran. The host leader accepted the invitation with pleasure.-VNA