Permanent Secretary Chee Wee Kiong of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam co-chaired the 14th Singapore-Vietnam Bilateral Consultations (SVBC) via videoconference on 9 November 2021.
Permanent Secretary Chee and Vice Minister Dung welcomed the excellent progress made in strengthening the Strategic Partnership between Singapore and Vietnam. In particular, they noted the regular high-level engagements over the past year, including Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong’s meeting with Vietnam PM Pham Minh Chinh in April 2021, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan’s official visit to Vietnam in June 2021.
Both sides commended the strong practical cooperation to address the COVID-19 pandemic, including maintaining supply chain connectivity, vaccinating nationals residing in each other’s countries, facilitating the return of our nationals home, and sharing best practices. During the 14th SVBC, Permanent Secretary Chee and Vice Minister Dung conducted a symbolic handover ceremony of Singapore’s donation to Vietnam of 200,000 Antigen Rapid Tests, 500,000 nasopharyngeal swabs, and 100,000 tubes of phosphate buffered saline. These donations are part of the mutual contributions of medical supplies and equipment between Singapore and Vietnam since the beginning of the pandemic. They welcomed the formation of the joint working group on COVID-19 earlier this year and tasked officials to conclude discussions on the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates to facilitate regularised essential business and official travel and allow for the resumption of regular commercial return flights between both countries.
Both sides reviewed Singapore and Vietnam’s multi-faceted and substantive cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, defence, education, finance, transport, food and agriculture, technical assistance and enhancing people-to-people ties. They had productive discussions on expanding our cooperation in important new areas of mutual interest such as energy, sustainable infrastructure, cyber security, innovation, and the digital economy. Both sides also exchanged views on key regional and international developments. They emphasised the importance of strengthening ASEAN unity and Centrality, deepening economic integration, and upholding rules-based multilateralism to promote peace and stability in the region.
. . . . .
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
9 NOVEMBER 2021
Caption: At the 14th Singapore-Vietnam Bilateral Consultations on 9 November 2021, Permanent Secretary Chee Wee Kiong of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam presided over the virtual handover ceremony of Singapore’s contribution of COVID-19 medical supplies to Vietnam.
Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
