AKIPRESS.COM - Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Thursday met with President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa who is paying a state visit to Vietnam from November 1-5 at the invitation of President Võ Văn Thưởng, VNS reports.

At the meeting, PM Chính hailed the significance of the visit of the Mongolian President to Vietnam when the two countries are to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2024, stressing that it will take the bilateral friendship to a new stage of development.

For his part, President Khurelsukh emphasized that the Mongolian government values the traditional friendship between Mongolia and Vietnam, considering the country its most important cooperation partner in Southeast Asia.

Discussing specific measures to enhance cooperation across the fields, PM Chính suggested further promoting the role of the Vietnam-Mongolia Intergovernmental Committee mechanism, and result-oriented cooperation between businesses, localities, and people of the two countries.

He said the two countries should continue to boost two-way trade by opening the market to each other's goods. He asked Mongolia to create favourable conditions for Vietnam's key agricultural and aquatic products to enter the Mongolian market, towards the goal of doubling bilateral trade turnover to $200 million in near future.

The PM also urged the two sides to increase trade and investment promotion activities, expand cooperation in the field of strategic minerals and organise business connection activities.

Chính welcomed the opening of direct flights between the two countries and the signing of an agreement on visa exemption for ordinary passport holders between the two countries, which create favourable conditions to promote their tourism and trade cooperation and increase people-to-people exchanges.

Agreeing with Chính, President Khurelsukh affirmed that strengthening comprehensive and extensive cooperation with Vietnam is a top priority in Mongolia's foreign policy in the region.

He said Mongolia wishes to further strengthen and expand cooperation with Vietnam in the fields of politics, defence, security, economy, trade, education, science and technology, transportation, logistics, culture, sports, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges, as well as at multilateral forums and mechanisms.

The two sides also agreed to continue to cooperate closely and support each other at international and regional forums of mutual interest.