Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem on May 21 concluded his two day official visit to Singapore where he also attended the opening ceremony of the Vietnam Festival in Singapore during his official visit to the country.

During the visit, made at the invitation of Foreign Minister George Yeo, Deputy PM Khiem met with Singaporean President SR Nathan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, held talks with FM George Yeo and co-chaired the Vietnam Festival.

He also met with Minister of Industry and Trade Lim Hug Kiang and leaders of the Economic Development Board (EDB) and International Enterprise Singapore (IES), who informed Deputy PM Khiem about Singapore’s socio-economic situation and experiences in development.

At these meetings, both sides discussed measures to promote and expand bilateral cooperation and expressed their high appreciation of the fine development of the two countries’ political ties, with the exchange of high-level delegations over the recent past, especially the Singapore visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in August 2007 and the State-level visit to Vietnam by President Nathan in February 2008.

They agreed to promote exchange of high-level delegations as well as ministerial and local delegations, helping constantly expand Vietnam-Singapore cooperative, friendly relations.

Deputy PM Khiem also thanked Singapore for organising the Vietnam Festival, describing it as a significant cultural event in 2008 as the two countries celebrate the 35th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Khiem praised Singapore’s erection of a stone stele to pay respect to President Ho Chi Minh in the country, saying the move is a vivid manifestation of intensifying friendly ties between the governments and people of the two countries.

On economic cooperation, the two sides were satisfied to see that trade and investment between the two countries have grown strongly in the recent past. They shared the same view of the need to accelerate bilateral cooperation in security, defence, the judicial sector, science and technology, oil and gas and health care.

The two sides also exchanged views on cooperation in international forums such as ASEAN, APEC, ASEM and the United Nations. They agreed to continue boosting cooperation in multipartite forums in the future.

Deputy PM Khiem invited FM George Yeo to visit Vietnam and the two sides planned to organise the 5th political consultation at deputy foreign ministerial level in Hanoi later this year.