Prime Ministers witnesses the signing of cooperation agreement between MAE and France

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a bilateral meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at the Hôtel de Matignon on June 10 (local time), promptly following his arrival in Paris and his participation in the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice.

PM Chinh discussed Vietnam's recent development accomplishments and its ongoing endeavors to realize two centennial objectives: to become a modern industrialized, upper-middle-income nation by 2030 and a high-income, developed socialist nation by 2045.

The PM underscored the tremendous potential of bilateral cooperation, particularly in sectors where France has strengths and Vietnam has a high demand, such as aerospace, urban transportation, nuclear energy, and manufacturing technologies, with this determination. In the new era, these sectors could be utilized as strategic "leverage" in accordance with Vietnam's development direction and investment attraction priorities.

French PM Francois Bayrou conveyed his admiration for Vietnam's socio-economic advancements and its expanding international presence and influence. He underlined France's dedication to enhancing its partnership with Vietnam in both traditional and emergent sectors, in accordance with the current comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations.

PM Bayrou underscored the necessity of enhanced collaboration between the two nations in order to responsibly contribute to the region's and the world's peace, stability, and development in the face of rapid and intricate global political and economic transformations.

Both leaders confirmed their commitment to tightly coordinate and effectively execute the results of recent high-level visits, fostering trust and comprehension at all levels through frequent delegation exchanges, notably at the highest level, across a variety of channels. To further institutionalize and deepen sector-specific collaboration, they also consented to explore the development of new cooperation mechanisms. Defense and security cooperation was identified as a critical component of the bilateral relationship.

In the areas of economic, trade, and investment, both parties pledged to make strides in the promotion of shared values of free trade, the opening of markets for each other, the reduction of dependence on third parties, and the assurance of global supply chain stability.

France was encouraged by PM Chinh to expedite the ratification of the EU–Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and to collaborate with Vietnam to ensure the effective implementation of the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

He also encouraged French investors to establish joint ventures with Vietnamese enterprises in order to develop strategic and high-impact industries and services, including logistics and the automobile industry.

The two PMs also consented to work closely together to implement six critical areas of bilateral cooperation: continuously bolstering political trust; significantly enhancing defense and security collaboration; fostering substantive, effective, fair, and sustainable economic, trade, and investment cooperation; establishing a new pillar in bilateral ties by achieving breakthroughs in science and technology—particularly in nuclear energy and space science; expanding cooperation in strategic infrastructure development; and revitalizing traditional areas of collaboration.

The two leaders observed the signing and transfer of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and France's Atomic and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) at the end of the meeting. This was succeeded by the aforementioned trilateral cooperation agreement on energy transition and mineral resource management.

Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam and the French Development Agency (AFD) are currently in discussions and are moving towards signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in agriculture and the environment for the 2025-2030 period. The two countries are also continuing to closely collaborate to implement the Action Plan and realize the signed cooperation agreements.

Over the years, cooperation between Vietnam and France in the fields of agriculture and environment has achieved many practical and notable results, especially in the context of the two countries officially upgrading their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

In agriculture and the environment, the two countries have implemented many effective cooperation programs, such as sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation circularity, and macroeconomic and social impact studies on climate change and energy transition.