KL, Hanoi to elevate ties to strategic partnership
DANANG (Vietnam): Datuk Seri Najib Razak sprang into action after arriving here yesterday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting, although the summit starts today.
The prime minister had a meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang after landing at the Danang International Airport at 2.45pm.
It was their first bilateral meeting since Tran took office in April last year. The meeting lasted 30 minutes.
Najib congratulated Tran for hosting the summit and praised the coastal city’s development.
They talked about two-way trade as Malaysia and Vietnam had agreed to elevate bilateral relations to strategic partnership.
Over the last 10 years, bilateral trade increased more than threefold to US$10.3 billion (RM43 billion) last year from US$3.2 billion in 2006. In 2015, the total trade amounted to US$9.3 billion.
Last year, Vietnam was Malaysia’s 12th largest trading partner (fourth largest in Asean).
From January to August this year, Vietnam was Malaysia’s 13th largest trading partner and 10th major export destination.
Najib, accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, was greeted at the airport by Vietnamese Education and Training Minister Phung Xuan Nha and Malaysian ambassador to Vietnam Zamruni Khalid.
Najib and other leaders of the 11 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are due to meet on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the fate of the multilateral free trade pact without the United States.
The leaders will delve into the broader regional free trade among the 21 Apec member economies.
Najib will kick off his participation in the summit by joining other leaders in discussing ways to strengthen cooperation and foster a future of inclusive and sustainable growth for people in the region.
Najib and the other leaders are due to attend an informal dialogue with leaders of Asean countries which are not Apec members.
They will also attend dialogues with US-Apec Business Coalition and Apec Business Advisory.