President meets with Italian parliament’s leaders

President Trần Đại Quang had separate meetings with leaders of the Italian Parliament - President of the Senate Pietro Grasso and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Bonldrini, in Rome on November 22 (local time). 

President Trần Đại Quang meets Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Bonldrini, in Rome on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

ROME — President Trần Đại Quang had separate meetings with leaders of the Italian Parliament, President of the Senate Pietro Grasso and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Bonldrini, in Rome on Tuesday. 

The two Italian leaders welcomed the visit to Italy by President Quang and affirmed Italy wants to deepen the strategic partnership with Việt Nam. 

The two sides agreed that Việt Nam and Italy need to enhance co-ordination in politics, economics, culture, education-training, science-technology, and defence-security as there is huge potential for co-operation. 

They discussed international issues in each region, affirming the necessity to increase co-operation at multilateral forums like the United Nations, Asia-Europe Meeting, as well as at Inter-Parliamentary Union forums and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership conference. 

The Italian parliament is ready to support the Vietnamese National Assembly to improve operation skills and provide technical assistance and share experience in law making, supervising and raising female deputies’ position, the parliamentarians said. 

They spoke highly of the contributions of the 5,000 Vietnamese to the local economy and culture. 

President Quang expressed his pleasure at strong development in bilateral ties since the two countries established their strategic partnership in 2013. 

Italy is Việt Nam’s big trade partner in the EU. Two-way trade has increased every year, reaching US$4.3 billion in 2015. The two countries target $6 billion for 2017-18. 

He thanked the Chamber of Deputies for its ratification of the Việt Nam-EU Partnership and Co-operation Agreement in March 2016. 

He asked the Italian parliament to support and ratify the Việt Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement soon, while encouraging Italian firms to do business in Việt Nam. 

Việt Nam is willing to create favourable conditions for Italian companies in the Southeast Asian nation. 

President Quang conveyed the invitations of NA Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân to the two Italian parliamentary leaders to visit Việt Nam. They accepted the invitation with pleasure. — VNS