HANOI—The Philippines and
Vietnam have agreed to actively fulfill the commitments within their bilateral cooperation
framework to further strengthen their economic and diplomatic ties in the next 25 years.
This agreement was reached by Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong during their bilateral
meeting Thursday at the sideline of the ongoing Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held here.
In a statement, the two leaders expressed their
satisfaction over the "fine development" in their friendship and cooperation in
the past.
They decided to vigorously implement the
commitments within their bilateral cooperation framework for the first 25 years of the
21st century and beyond "to elevate their relations to a higher plane in the time to
come".
Such cooperation framework that the two
governments signed in November 2002 set the direction of their diplomatic, economic and
security ties in the next 25 years.(full
story)
