Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – The Vietnam-Malaysia relations have beenconsolidated and developed across the fields of politics-diplomacy,defence-security, economy, and cultural exchange over the past 45 years, accordingto Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia Le Quy Quynh.

In his writing to look back on 45 years of the bilateral diplomatic relations,Quynh stressed that the relations between the two countries become more specialafter both sides lifted the relations to strategic partnership in 2015.

Regarding politics, regular exchanges at all levels have been promoted while cooperativemechanisms prioritised and maintained through generations of leaders.

Malaysia’snew government and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad attach much importance tothe relations with Vietnam, and the Malaysian Government leader will pay anofficial visit to Vietnam and attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEFASEAN) in September, the diplomat said.

Both countries have seen robust signs in trade and investment relations as wellas found huge potential for further cooperation. Malaysia is currently the 8th largest trade partner of Vietnam, and Vietnam is the 12th largesttrade partner of Malaysia.

Two-way trade in 2017 topped 10 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 19.06percent, of which Vietnam exported 4.2 billion USD worth of products toMalaysia and imported goods worth over 5.8 billion USD from Malaysian. Bothsides are striving to increase trade value to 15 billion USD by 2020 under theVietnam-Malaysia Action Plan in 2017-2019.

Malaysia ranks 7th out of 125 countries and territories investing inVietnam. By the end of December 2017, Malaysia had 568 projects with a totalregistered capital of 12.18 billion USD in Vietnam.

The two countries have been interested in bolstering collaboration in securityand defence. Particularly, 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of thesigning of the Memorandum of Understanding on defence cooperation.

They continue enhancing information exchange, working to prevent piracy, aswell as promoting search and rescue efforts, and assisting Vietnamese vesselsin distress.

Also, fruitful cooperation has been recorded in labour, education and tourism,with the effective implementation of the labour cooperation deal inked in 2015,and various student exchange events.

There are more and more tourists travelling between the two nations. Malaysiahas been in the top 10 Asian tourism markets of Vietnam, with some 400,000arrivals in 2017, accounting for 3.48 percent of total foreigners spendingholidays in the country in the year.

In the multilateral aspect, both nations have built confidence and strong bondsas they are active members of such organisations as the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum(APEC), the United Nations (UN), the Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP), and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP).

They share a common viewpoint on various issues, such as the ASEAN’s centralrole in the regional security structure, the full and effective implementationof the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (DOC) as wellas the early finalisation of the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Ambassdor Quynh reaffirmed that the bilateral ties have always been nurtured bygenerations of leaders of both sides, bringing benefits to the two peoples forthe sake of regional and global peace and stability.-VNA