Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong and UK Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Peter Ricketts co-chaired the meeting.

The two sides exchanged their views on the implementation of cooperation agreements and projects in the five priority areas: politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, development cooperation, education and training, immigration, and combating organised crime. These areas are stated in a joint statement agreed upon by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his UK counterpart Gordon Brown during the former’s visit to the UK in March 2008.

Both host and guest agreed that the bilateral friendship and multifaceted cooperation have experienced fruitful development. They also discussed a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The UK official pledged to cooperate with Vietnamat international forums, particularly the United Nations, and to maintain the flow of official development assistance (ODA) into Vietnam in the future. He voiced support for UK businesses to boost their investment and trade ties with Vietnam in an effort to increase the UK's direct investment to US$3 billion and two-way trade to US$4 billion in the next five years.

Vietnam and the UK agreed to further promote cooperation in education and training, with a particular focus on improving English language skills among Vietnamese civilians and training doctors for universities.

During his five-day visit, which concluded on January 14, Mr Ricketts worked with Deputy Minister of Public Security Le The Tiem to discuss bilateral cooperation in the areas of immigration and fighting organised crime.

Source: VOV