Vietnam – Meeting between Catherine Colonna and her counterpart (5 June 2023)

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna met today with her Vietnamese counterpart, Bui Th
anh Son.

She lauded the first bilateral visit to France by a Vietnamese foreign minister in 10 years. The two ministers hailed the close ties between our two countries as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of French-Vietnamese diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership.

The ministers agreed to deepen our bilateral relationship. Regular bilateral consultations will be held to strengthen our strategic partnership and step up person-to-person connections in future-oriented cultural, education and scientific collaborations, and to focus our economic partnership on the challenges of climate change and the digital transformation. The French minister assured Vietnam of France’s wish to do its utmost for the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) finalized in late 2022 by Vietnam and its G7 partners.

The two ministers expressed their deep commitment to seeing all nations abide by international law, especially in the areas of sovereignty and territorial integrity. The French minister emphasized that Russia must fully abide by those principles in any settlement of its war of aggression in Ukraine.

She stressed the importance that France attributes to deepening its development partnership with ASEAN and its observer status within ADMM-Plus as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, and thanked Vietnam for its support. The two ministers expressed their concern over the deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation in Myanmar following the coup d’état and called for the implementation of ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus.