Mr Boris Batura had a meeting with the parliamentary delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

      On 29 April 2009 Mr Boris Batura, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, had a meeting with the parliamentary delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam headed by Mr Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Mr Vladimir Ivanov, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Ms Nina Mazay, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Foreign Affairs and National Security, Mr Anatoly Novikov and Ms Liliya Moroz, Deputy Chairpersons of the Standing Committees of the Council of the Republic for Education, Science, Culture and Social Development and for Legislation and State Administration, Mr Vitaly Busko, member of the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives for International Affairs and Ties with the CIS, Head of the working group of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on cooperation with the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Mr Pavel Utyupin, member of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic for Foreign Affairs and National Security, Deputy Head of the mentioned working group, also took part in the meeting. The sides discussed a wide range of Belarus-Vietnam cooperation issues — development of contacts between legislative bodies, interaction of our countries within the framework of multilateral international organizations, bilateral contacts in political, trade and economic, scientific and technical, humanitarian spheres etc.

      Mr Boris Batura, Chairman of the Council of the Republic, expressed gratitude to the Vietnamese side for their support of Belarusian initiatives in the international arena (in particular for the ratification of the Belarusian amendment to Annex B of the Kyoto protocol). He also underlined that active exchange of higher and high level delegations indicated mutual interest in the development of relations between Minsk and Hanoi. Special attention was given to the active links between large Belarusian enterprises and Vietnamese economic entities, which were to facilitate the promotion of products of the two countries at the world market in the context of the financial and economic crisis.

      Mr Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in his turn highly appraised social and economic development of the Republic of Belarus. He emphasized the sustainable development of our country’s economy during the crisis. The participants of the meeting were briefed on the economic situation in Vietnam. A special note was made of the necessity of the parliamentary control over the implementation of the agreements between the two countries in the sphere of trade and economic cooperation and humanitarian exchange.

      After the meeting an Agreement on Cooperation between the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was signed. It provides for the development of regional level interaction between the two countries and will facilitate more effective cooperation in the international arena. It will give a new impetus to the relations of the two parliaments and strengthen the traditionally friendly links between the Belarusian and Vietnamese peoples.