The State visit of the President of Indonesia to Vietnam at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong from January 12-13 has ended successfully. With substantial results, this visit of the distinguished guest from the archipelago nation will create new breakthroughs, continuing to promote the traditional friendship and strategic partnership of the two countries to become deeper and more effective.

President Vo Van Thuong welcomes President Joko Widodo, January 12. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

Seeing off the President and the Indonesian high-ranking delegation at Cat Bi International Airport, Hai Phong City after he visited the VinGroup electric car factory, were: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet; Vice Chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee Nguyen Duc Tho; Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia Ta Van Thong, Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Denny Abdi and a number of Embassy officials...

During two days with a series of activities in Vietnam during his State visit right at the beginning of the new year, President Joko Widodo laid a wreath, visited President Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, and paid tribute at the Monument to Heroes and Martyrs.

President Joko Widodo attended the official welcoming ceremony, held talks, witnessed the signing of documents, met with the press, and had a reception with President Vo Van Thuong; met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and met with a number of typical Vietnamese and Indonesian enterprises; and met with National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Joko Widodo. (Source: VNA)

At the talks and meetings, our country's leaders warmly welcomed President Joko Widodo's State visit to Vietnam; emphasizing that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to further strengthen the traditional relationship and strategic partnership with Indonesia on the basis of historical tradition, similar values, interests, trust and mutual understanding as well as common commitments to international law.

The Vietnamese leaders highly appreciated Indonesia's outstanding domestic and foreign achievements under the leadership of President Joko Widodo in the past two terms; congratulated Indonesia on successfully fulfilling its role as Chair of the G20 in 2022 and Chair of ASEAN and AIPA in 2023; wished Indonesia a successful organization of the upcoming general election, continued prosperous development, and active contributions to peace and cooperation in the region and the world.

President Joko Widodo thanked the warm welcome and expressed his pleasure in visiting Vietnam for the second time as President; congratulated Vietnam on its outstanding achievements in socio-economic development; highly appreciated the substantive exchanges with Vietnamese leaders in delegation exchanges and high-level contacts in recent times; and thanked Vietnam for its support during Indonesia's tenure as ASEAN Chair in 2023. The Indonesian President affirmed that he always attaches importance to and wishes to further strengthen the traditional friendship and cooperation with Vietnam - Indonesia's only strategic partner in ASEAN.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and President Joko Widodo. (Source: VNA)

The leaders of the two countries expressed their satisfaction with the strong and dynamic development of the Vietnam-Indonesia Strategic Partnership. Within ASEAN, Indonesia is Vietnam's third largest trading partner and Vietnam is Indonesia's fourth largest trading partner. Despite Covid-19, bilateral trade turnover continues to grow positively (from 9 billion USD in 2019 to nearly 14 billion USD in 2023).

Discussing a number of major cooperation directions in the coming time, the two sides agreed to further enhance political trust through delegation exchanges, high-level and all-level contacts; effectively deploy bilateral cooperation mechanisms; promptly develop an Action Program for the 2024-2028 period in line with the new context. The leaders of the two countries also agreed that, based on the great achievements of cooperation over the past nearly 70 years, it is necessary to soon bring the Strategic Partnership between the two countries to a new height. The two sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Before successfully concluding the visit, President Joko Widodo visited the Vinfast Factory in Hai Phong. (Source: VNA)

The leaders of the two countries witnessed the exchange of two cooperation documents including: Memorandum of Understanding on Information and Communications Technology Cooperation and Memorandum of Understanding on Fisheries Cooperation.

During the visit, President Joko Widodo and President Vo Van Thuong enjoyed martial arts and art performances by athletes, soldiers and artists of the Vietnam People's Army.

The State visit of the President of Indonesia ended successfully; thereby, promoting the traditional friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries to become deeper and more effective.