During nearly three decades of renewal, Vietnam has seen strong progressin its multilateral external relations, which has significantlycontributed to enhancing status and strength of the country.

According to former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, multilateralforeign policy has opened up a great deal of opportunities forVietnam .

In the past, it helped the country getout of political isolation and economic blockade, while enablingVietnam to foster bilateral ties with other nations around the globe,he said.

Thanks to multilateral diplomacy, Vietnamhas received remarkable support from the outside, which haveremarkably contributed to the country’s socio-economic development,human resources training and internal institutions, the former Deputy PMstated.

Particularly, joining multilateral economicinstitution, including the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), and the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) has helped Vietnam expand its market to thebiggest-ever scale, he stressed.

At the same time, agreat number of officials in all sectors have had opportunities toimprove their capacity, knowledge and skills through multilateraldiplomatic activities.

The former Deputy PM alsopointed to a number of challenges facing Vietnam in carrying out thepolicy, including the heaps of complicated regulations, principles andprocedures in multilateral mechanisms.

In addition,how to ensure a harmony of the country’s participations in differentmultilateral institutions is also a big issue, he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh stressed theimportance of international economic integration in the country’smultilateral external relations.

Initiated in 1986during the sixth National Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party andintensively sped up since 1990s, economic integration has been carriedout in all bilateral, regional and multilateral aspects.

Vietnam has become a member of a number of regional and internationalorganisations, including the ASEAN, the ASEAN Free Trade Area, and theWorld Trade Organisation.

Together with other ASEANmember countries, Vietnam has joined free trade agreements between theassociation and partners, including China , India , the Republic ofKorea , Japan , Australia and New Zealand .

Bilaterally, Vietnam has signed a series of important deals withpartners, including two bilateral free trade agreements with Japan andChile .

The country is also working hard forsix other deals, including the Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP), and free trade agreements with theRussia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union and the European Union, Khanhnoted.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Trade TruongDinh Tuyen said international economic cooperation with wider and deeperrange of connectivity is positively supporting the economicrestructuring of Vietnam . This has helped the country tap bothinternal and external advantages for the promotion of exports andattracting more foreign investment, he said.

Discussing major trends of multilateral external relations in the 21 stcentury, WTO former Director General Pascal Lamy said in the next fewdecades, globalisation will continue to shape the world situation.

He held that each country should perfect their governance model toadapt to a more complicated global environment. Multilateral mechanismscan assist them in overcoming this challenge, he added.

Lamy asserted that multilateralism will remain trendy in the currentgeopolitical and geo-economic situations, helping mobilising jointefforts of countries in coping with common challenges.-VNA