The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erika Mouynes, began her state visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, where she was received at an official audience with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, confirming the value that Vietnam attributes to the meeting.
The chancellor also held an extensive working meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bui Thanh Son, with whom she reviewed the key issues on the bilateral agenda and those of common interest, accompanied by Ambassador Eligio Salas and the Director of Foreign Policy, Isbeth Quiel. .
“It is of special importance that a strategic actor in the global supply chain of basic goods such as Vietnam has a permanent presence in our country, to establish commercial and logistical links that strengthen the common vision that we share,” the Panamanian minister reiterated to the Prime Minister. Pham, to whom he proposed the reopening of the Vietnamese diplomatic and commercial representation in the Republic of Panama.
In both meetings, the Panamanian Foreign Minister conveyed the will of President Laurentino Cortizo to expand and strengthen political-diplomatic, commercial, economic, cultural and educational ties. Vietnam promised to support Panama in its participation in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian States, which represents the most important regional bloc in Southeast Asia.
Minister Bui invited Panama to form a strategic business and investment association that serves so that both countries, Vietnam and Panama, are bridges between Latin America and Southeast Asia, agreeing on the need for “effective articulators” to promote investment and trade. and the digitization of the respective economies.
The foreign ministers promised to exchange delegations to boost trade ties and facilitate the certification of Panamanian product plants for export to the Vietnamese market, which represents nearly one hundred million people. The first Panamanian processing plants to be evaluated will be for bovine leather.
“These exchanges will be of vital importance to deepen trade between our countries and ensure that the Colon Free Zone is the port of entry to Latin America for the various products of the Vietnamese economy,” said Minister Mouynes on her first day of work. in Hanoi. The ministers also agreed to establish a work schedule to follow up on the joint political and commercial agenda defined during this official visit.
As nations closely linked to the sea and shipping, the ministers evaluated the role of Vietnam and Panama in port logistics and in the global supply chain. Vietnam is the third largest nationality of seafarers in our merchant fleet, the largest in the world. In this sense, both foreign ministers agreed to establish work teams to sign a maritime agreement that enhances synergies in this field.
Minister Bui Than Son congratulated Panama for its status as a negative carbon country and confirmed his nation’s participation in the Our Ocean 2023 Conference, which will take place in March of that year in Panama.
Following the national protocol for high-level visits, the Panamanian Foreign Minister, in a solemn act, placed a wreath at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, father of the Vietnamese country.
On its second and last day in Vietnam, the second stage of its Asian tour after China, the Panamanian delegation will be received by the Minister of Industry and Commerce Nguyen Hong Dien and will meet with local media, before leaving for Indonesia, the next stop of the diplomatic mission.
