Ottawa (VNA) – National Assembly (NA) ViceChairman Do Ba Ty has met with senior officials of Canada’s parliament andgovernment, voicing his hope for enhanced substantive cooperation between theVietnamese and Canadian parliaments.

The meetings on December 5-6 were part of aworking visit to Canada by a NA delegation of Vietnam from December 4-7.

During talks with Deputy Speaker of the House ofCommons Bruce Stanton and Chairwoman of the Canadian Senate’s Committee forForeign Affairs and International Trade Raynell Andreychuk, Ty noted the twocountries’ relations have been growing, especially in economics, trade,investment, science-technology, and education.

Bilateral trade has almost doubled from 2.2billion USD in 2013 to 4.1 billion USD in 2015. Vietnam is now a leadingSoutheast Asian trade partner of Canada. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Vietnameseuniversity students are studying in Canada, doubling the figure 10 years ago.

The NA Vice Chairman asked the two parliamentsto continue regular high-ranking visits and work closely and support each otherat international organisations and multilateral forums such as the UnitedNations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the Asian-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) forum.

Touching upon territorial disputes in the EastSea, he reiterated Vietnam’s consistent stance of resolving all disputes bypeaceful means and in conformity with international law, especially the 1982 UNConvention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

Vietnam supports the international community’sefforts to maintain peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation andoverflight in the East Sea. It highly values Canada’s stance and positivestatements on the East Sea issue, particularly Foreign Minister Stephan Dion’scomment that The Hague tribunal’s ruling last July is binding and must becomplied by relevant parties, Ty added.

For their part, the Canadian officials spokehighly of Vietnam’s socio-economic development and increasing stature in ASEANand Asia-Pacific, adding that their country will closely follow the East Seaissue and support the settlement of disputes in line with international law.

Canada is ready to cooperate with Vietnam tocope with challenges in the Mekong region and devise solutions to bringbilateral trade on par with its potential, they noted.

Expressing his wish for the countries’ strongerconnections, Deputy Speaker Stanton said he believes Vietnam will be a successfulhost of APEC activities in 2017, adding that the foundation of friendshipparliamentary groups will create an effective channel for the parliaments tosolidify collaboration.

Talking to Pamela Goldsmith-Jones –Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tran Van Tuy, headof the Vietnamese NA’s board for deputy affairs, spoke highly of Canada’s rolein the global fight against climate change. He asked the country to shareexperience and assist Vietnam in climate change prevention.

For her part, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones said theCanadian Government treasures ties with Vietnam and considers the SoutheastAsian nation a priority in its foreign policy. It also wants to work withVietnam to address issues of shared concern like climate change response.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the NA Committee forDefence and Security Affairs Vu Trong Viet had talks with Chairman of Canada’sHouse of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence Stephen Fuhr.

They said the security situation in Asia-Pacificand Southeast Asia is basically peaceful and stable with developingmultilateral cooperation mechanisms which are greatly contributing to commonpeace and security.

They shared the view that East Sea disputes mustbe handled peacefully, on the basis of international law, especially 1982UNCLOS, joint statements between China and ASEAN like the Declaration on theConduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and other high-level statements onthe East Sea issued by ASEAN. Efforts must also be made to soon finalise a Codeof Conduct (COC) in the waters.

At the meetings, the two sides agreed toincrease delegation exchanges at all levels between the two parliaments toshare experience in lawmaking, supervision and law enforcement. The legislativebodies will also coordinate to monitor the implementation of agreements betweenthe two countries’ governments and ministries so that these deals will bring aboutpractical benefits.-VNA