During their summit meeting in Abu Dhabi on October 28 (local time), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan agreed to lift up the bilateral ties between the two countries to a comprehensive partnership, according to a report from the Government News.

With this move, the UAE has become Vietnam's first comprehensive partner in the Middle East.

At the meeting, President Sheikh Mohammed lauded Vietnam's glorious history and development achievements, affirming Vietnam is a major partner of the UAE in Asia.

PM Chinh, for his part, expressed his admiration for the UEA's development achievements, which have helped the country to become a top economic, financial and technological hub in the Middle East.

Both leaders expressed their delight at the remarkable developments in the Viet Nam-UAE relations, featuring with increasingly consolidated political trust and understanding, increasingly substantive economic cooperation, and increasingly close coordination and support at multilateral forums.

The two leaders outlined six priorities to boost bilateral cooperation: (i) promptly formulating an action program to implement the newly-established comprehensive partnership framework, (ii) promoting cooperation in innovation, digital transformation, green transition, and circular economy, (iii) creating a breakthrough in economic, trade and investment cooperation; (iv) working together to develop Halal industry; (v) strengthening cooperation in labor, culture, tourism, sports, people-to-people exchange; and (vi) maintaining close coordination and mutual support over regional and international issues at multilateral forums.

President Sheikh Mohammed voiced his support for the establishment of Vietnam's Cultural Center in the UAE, for a youth football training academy and for financial center project in Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding the East Sea issue, Prime Minister Chinh called on the UAE to back ASEAN and Viet Nam's positions on the East Sea in order to ensure peace, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation and resolve disputes via peaceful measures on the basis of respect for international law, the United Nations Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.