Deputy Foreign Minister of Viet Nam in charge of multilateral affairs as well as South-East Asia, East Asia and South Asia, Do Hung Viet, had an expansive bilateral meeting with the ambassador of Sri Lanka to Ha Noi, Prof. A. Saj U. Mendis and a delegation from Sri Lanka at the Head Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was a meeting scheduled between the Deputy Foreign Minister and ambassador in order to schedule a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam to discuss a Work Plan and measures to elevate bilateral relations between the two countries since the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka met with him on the margins of the 3rd Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) in Beijing.

A Sri Lankan embassy in Viet Nam press release said: ‘The aforementioned meeting with the Deputy Foreign Minister lasted nearly 40-minutes, during which a number of key and seminal issues were broached and addressed. The Deputy Foreign Minister accentuated and underlined the fact that the two countries have exceeding potential to elevate and deepen the bilateral relations ranging from trade, tourism, economic and commercial activity, culture to investments, which are yet to be unleashed and fructified.

‘During the congenial and highly focused bilateral meeting, Deputy Minister Viet stated that the regional connectivity was significant in the context of ASEAN, IOR, BIMSTEC and NAM, among others. He added it was most timely and opportune to translate and transform the existing traditional and conventional political, diplomatic and commercial relations between Viet Nam and Sri Lanka into robust economic cooperation and collaboration, in all spheres. Deputy Minister further added that the bilateral trade between the two countries still hovers around USD 300 million, whereas the factual potential and capacity would be well over twice this figure.

‘Ambassador Mendis stated that Viet Nam had imported goods and services worth in excess of USD 350 billion in 2022 and if Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and corporates could capture not 1% but only 0.1%, it would translate to USD 350 million worth of Sri Lankan exports to Viet Nam. Whilst both the Minister and envoy agreed of the potential which was yet to be unleashed, Mendis stated that the tourism from Viet Nam to Sri Lanka too was very modest due to the lack of connectivity or any direct flights. Deputy Minister agreed to address this issue as well as he stated that nearly 15 million Vietnamese tourists and travelers have travelled out of the country before the COVID, mostly to ASEAN countries, neighboring countries such as China and Japan and Europe. Envoy Mendis added if Sri Lanka could attract only 0.2% of these Vietnamese travelers of upper-middle income category, it would translate to close to 30,000 Vietnamese travelers travelling to Sri Lanka, thus patently boosting the province of tourism.

‘Deputy Minister was eager as much as the delegation of Sri Lanka to have the 5th Round of Bilateral Political Consultations in the second quarter of 2024 in Colombo as well as the 4th Joint Commission Meeting in the latter part of the year 2024 in Sri Lanka. Deputy Minister emphasized that these meetings and engagement would pave the way for very high level visits between the two countries, thus further strengthening, deepening and aggrandizing the bilateral relations in all realms.

‘Envoy Mendis expressed deep appreciation to the Deputy Minister for the unstinting and unconditional support and allegiance extended to Sri Lanka with regard to Human Rights Council (HRC) since Viet Nam is a member of the HRC. Also, Sri Lanka was elected to the UNESCO Executive Board and expressed gratitude to the delegation of Viet Nam for supporting Sri Lanka. Mendis further stated that Sri Lanka has been, consistently, supporting the positions and elections of Viet Nam given the most affable relations the two countries maintain. On a separate note, both the Deputy Minister and Envoy discussed the eagerness of Sri Lanka to become a member of the 15-member RCEP, which is the largest trading bloc consisting of 34% of global trade. Both the Deputy Minister and envoy recognized the untapped potential of Sri Lanka given its strategic location, human resource base and natural endowments, which were most fitting and felicitous for manufacturing, outsourcing and investments, particularly, ensuring the smooth and efficacious functioning of the regional and global logistic and supply chain.’