Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the Spanish Prime Minister asked the two countries' Foreign Ministries to study the contents towards upgrading the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time.

At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain Pedro Sánchez paid an official visit to Vietnam from April 8-10, 2025.

Immediately after the solemn official welcoming ceremony, on the morning of April 9 at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

In a warm and friendly atmosphere, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh warmly welcomed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the high-ranking Spanish delegation; affirmed the important significance of the first visit by the head of the Spanish Government since the two countries established diplomatic relations; believed that the visit would open a new stage of development, bringing the Vietnam-Spain strategic partnership to a new height.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to and wishes to further promote multifaceted cooperation with Spain, Vietnam's first strategic partner in the EU; highly appreciated Spain under the leadership of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for achieving many important socio-economic development achievements, actively contributing to solving global issues.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the similarities between the two countries in terms of geostrategic location, cultural and historical traditions, and friendly and hospitable people are catalysts to comprehensively promote cooperation between the two countries in all fields, from politics-diplomacy, trade-investment to new strategic areas such as defense-security, science-technology, infrastructure, renewable energy and sustainable development...

For his part, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his gratitude for the warm and friendly welcome given by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh personally, as well as by the Government and people of Vietnam to the high-ranking Spanish delegation. This is the first visit by a Spanish Prime Minister to Vietnam since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1977, opening the way for many high-ranking visits between the two countries in the future; the two countries still have much room for cooperation; and agreed with Vietnam to work towards establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time.

The Spanish Prime Minister congratulated Vietnam on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification, and expressed his impression of the strong development achievements of the Vietnamese economy in recent times, especially the efforts to promote breakthroughs in science, technology and national digital transformation; affirmed that Vietnam is one of the top priority partners in ASEAN and Spain wishes to promote comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam, an active and responsible member in the Asia-Pacific region; emphasized that more and more Spanish businesses and tourists want to visit Vietnam and explore investment and business opportunities, especially in the fields of railway and urban railway cooperation, energy, aviation, etc.

In an atmosphere of trust and openness, the two leaders discussed major cooperation directions to bring the Vietnam-Spain Strategic Partnership into deeper, more practical and effective dimensions.

In terms of politics and diplomacy, the two sides agreed to increase delegation exchanges and contacts at all levels, especially high-level ones, through all channels of the Party, State, Government, and National Assembly; effectively implement existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms, as well as study the establishment of new cooperation mechanisms in specialized fields.

The two Prime Ministers proposed that the two countries' Foreign Ministries continue to play a coordinating role in promoting bilateral relations and studying the contents towards upgrading the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time.

Faced with the current developments in the world economy, the Prime Minister emphasized that the Vietnamese Government is maximizing the motto of "calm, bravery, flexibility and creativity," "avoiding confrontation, persistently engaging in dialogue," and restructuring the economy in a green and sustainable direction to proactively respond and enhance the internal capacity and resilience of the economy to external fluctuations that may impact the development of all aspects of Vietnam.

For domestic enterprises as well as foreign enterprises investing in Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that Vietnam is implementing financial and fiscal support policies (credit support, preferential interest rates, reduction of fees, charges, land taxes, etc.) as well as ensuring smooth infrastructure, open institutions, smart governance, etc. to reduce input costs, enhance the competitiveness of domestic enterprises, ensure a stable, safe, and transparent investment and business environment, thereby creating a solid foundation for foreign investors to do long-term business in Vietnam.

The Prime Minister also affirmed that Vietnam is focusing on diversifying markets, especially potential markets, diversifying products and supply chains. This also requires domestic and foreign enterprises to improve productivity and product quality through active investment in innovation, application of science and technology as well as focusing on copyright and intellectual property to enhance competitiveness.

In that spirit, the two leaders affirmed that the economic, trade and investment sectors are one of the important pillars in the Vietnam-Spain strategic partnership.

The two leaders agreed to effectively implement the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the newly signed Protocol on bilateral financial cooperation, as well as to soon convene the first session of the Joint Committee on Economics, Trade and Investment in 2025 to fully exploit the potential and complementarity of the two economies, striving to bring bilateral trade turnover to exceed 8 billion USD in the coming time.

The Head of the Spanish Government highly appreciated the cooperation potentials that will open up when the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) officially takes effect, pledging to support the remaining EU countries to soon ratify this Agreement; urging the EC to soon remove the “IUU” yellow card for Vietnamese seafood.

The Spanish Prime Minister emphasized the complementary nature of the two countries' economies and suggested that Vietnam reduce non-tariff administrative procedures and open its market to Spanish agricultural and poultry products to promote balanced trade cooperation. On this occasion, the Spanish Prime Minister also thanked Vietnam for continuing to extend visa exemptions for Spanish citizens, contributing to promoting tourism, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

The two leaders agreed to continue to deepen cooperation in the fields of education, culture, sports and tourism, sustainable agricultural development, local cooperation and people-to-people exchange, high-quality human resource training, national defense and security, especially in training and capacity building for officers and law enforcement officers of the two countries, defense industry, counter-terrorism, transnational crime, United Nations peacekeeping, overcoming the consequences of war in Vietnam; expand cooperation in other potential fields such as science and technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and digital transformation...

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that the two countries consider opening direct flights, contributing to increasing the number of tourists between the two countries; and welcomed the results of bilateral cooperation in the field of adoption.

The Spanish Prime Minister highly appreciated the positive contributions of the Vietnamese community in Spain to the local socio-economy; agreed to continue to pay attention and create favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Spain to successfully integrate into the host country, creating a bridge to promote friendship between the two countries.

On the multilateral front, the two Prime Ministers affirmed that solidarity and cooperation, promoting multilateralism and respect for international law are the keys to addressing global challenges; agreed to continue to closely coordinate and support each other at multilateral forums and international organizations, especially at the United Nations and within the ASEAN-EU framework.

On this occasion, the Spanish Prime Minister highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts to contribute to solving global issues, for peace, cooperation and development. The Spanish Prime Minister welcomed Vietnam's hosting of the Partnership for Green Growth (P4G) Summit in April 2025, and affirmed that Spain will have a representative to attend the Summit.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that Vietnam is ready to act as a bridge to promote cooperation between ASEAN and Spain, and hopes that Spain will promote cooperation between Vietnam and the EU and Latin American countries.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides agreed on the importance of the East Sea in international maritime traffic; affirmed support for the stance of Vietnam and ASEAN on resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of compliance with international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), contributing to maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of aviation and navigation in the region.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez invited Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to visit Spain to continue discussing measures to promote the Vietnam-Spain strategic partnership. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh happily accepted the invitation and suggested that the two countries' foreign ministries closely coordinate to arrange the visit at a suitable time./.