General Secretary, President To Lam’s visits to three ASEAN countries achieve great success: FM Le Hoai Trung
WVR - Politburo Member and Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung affirmed that the visit to Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, and the attendance and speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue from May 27 to June 1 by General Secretary, President To Lam, achieved significant results, thereby strengthening a peaceful, stable environment and favourable foreign relations, especially with ASEAN partners.
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| Politburo Member and Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung. (Photo: Bao Chi) |
The official visit to Thailand, state visits to Singapore and the Philippines, and speech at the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue by General Secretary, President To Lam was highly successful. Could you share the key outcomes of General Secretary, President To Lam's visit?
From May 27 to June 1, General Secretary, President To Lam, his spouse, and a high-level delegation from the Party and State conducted an official visit to Thailand, a state visit to Singapore and delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue, and made a state visit to the Philippines. This visit held significant importance and was highly successful, achieving the set objectives at a high level.
This was also the first visit by General Secretary, President To Lam to ASEAN countries following the successful 14th National Party Congress, the 16th National Assembly elections, and the People's Council elections for the 2026–2031 term. It was even more meaningful as the visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Thailand and the Philippines. Additionally, this period marks the Philippines as the ASEAN Chair in 2026, Singapore as the ASEAN Chair in 2027, and Vietnam as the APEC host in 2027.
Therefore, this visit has opened new cooperation directions between Vietnam and all three partners as they all enter a new development phase with new demands amidst complex international and regional situations.
General Secretary, President, his spouse, and our high-level delegation engaged in a diverse and substantive working program, particularly in extensive meetings, discussions, and exchanges with senior leaders of Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. They also participated in important forums with corporations, enterprises, research institutes, explored exemplary science and technology facilities, and met with the Vietnamese community in the three countries.
All three countries extended a warm, sincere, and high-level reception to the delegation, with many special courtesies; the Prime Minister of Thailand and his spouse personally saw off the General Secretary, President, and his spouse at the airport. Both the President and Prime Minister of Singapore held discussions, exchanges, and hosted a banquet for General Secretary, President To Lam.
Within the framework of the visit, a significant highlight was the keynote speech by the General Secretary, President at the Shangri-La Dialogue – a prestigious and influential international security and defense forum in the Asia-Pacific region, attended by approximately 500 delegates from over 40 countries.
The General Secretary, President's keynote on international and regional peace and security clearly articulated the Party and State's stance on current global situations, the challenges posed, and important recommendations and proposals, which were acknowledged and highly appreciated by the conference delegates and the international community.
It is evident that the visit strongly conveyed Vietnam's development message to key regional partners; clearly demonstrating Vietnam's mindset, needs, and development orientation in the new phase; consistently affirming the policy of valuing relations with neighboring countries and ASEAN nations, and showcasing Vietnam's proactive, positive, and responsible role in strengthening ASEAN unity, enhancing ASEAN's central role, and maintaining peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region.
The peace message was convincingly delivered in the General Secretary, President's keynote at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The speech received special attention and positive feedback from both regional and international public opinion; highlighting Vietnam's role as a responsible member and a credible voice on regional and global peace, security, and development issues.
Another notable outcome of the visit is the strengthened political trust between Vietnam and the three countries. We have advanced the comprehensive strategic partnership with Thailand, elevated strategic cooperation with Singapore through the strategic dialogue mechanism between the ruling parties, and upgraded the framework of relations with the Philippines to an enhanced strategic partnership.
The leaders agreed to establish new mechanisms, reflecting political trust, deepening relationships, and creating a framework to promote deeper cooperation; focusing on the Action Program to implement the Vietnam-Thailand Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for 2026–2031 and the strategic dialogue mechanism between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the People's Action Party of Singapore.
We have comprehensively strengthened and promoted dynamic, effective cooperation with the three countries across all channels of the Party, State, National Assembly, and people-to-people exchanges; increasing connectivity and linkage between Vietnam and the countries and among ASEAN countries, concretizing the content, promoting breakthroughs, and developing new quality in cooperation fields with the three countries in defense-security, economy, trade, investment, science, technology, and innovation, culture, education-training, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.
Additionally, cooperation in new potential fields of strategic importance for our country's development has been expanded, especially in artificial intelligence, digital transformation, innovation, digital economy, green economy, fair energy transition, e-government, tourism, and local connectivity...
A notable result is the vibrant and diverse connection between Vietnamese ministries, sectors, localities, and enterprises with partners in the countries. Official delegation members had many substantive meetings and exchanges with partners in the three countries. The Vietnam-Thailand Business Forum was attended by the Thai Prime Minister and nearly 700 businesses from both countries, including 550 Thai businesses; the TechConnect technology connection forum in Singapore saw the participation of 500 representatives from the government, businesses, and researchers from both countries. Twenty cooperation and business documents were signed in Thailand, 31 in Singapore, and nearly 20 in the Philippines. These impressive numbers reflect the deep cooperation desire of partners with Vietnam and the enormous potential in cooperation between us and the three countries.
Thus, it can be seen that the visit was highly successful, achieving significant results, thereby strengthening a peaceful, stable environment and favourable foreign relations, especially with ASEAN partners, creating conditions for the country's socio-economic development, and contributing positively to peace, stability, cooperation, and prosperity in the region. The visit also clearly demonstrated the enhanced position and role of Vietnam on the international stage, actively contributing to solving common international issues.
What makes this visit particularly significant and meaningful, Minister?
The visit by General Secretary, President To Lam, his spouse, and the high-level delegation from our Party and State to Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines holds many particularly important meanings.
Firstly, the visit affirms our Party and State's emphasis on relations with Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and ASEAN countries in general. Taking place just over a month after the key leadership positions of the State were consolidated, it was the first visit to Southeast Asian countries by General Secretary, President To Lam in his new position. It was also the first time our Party's General Secretary visited the Philippines. Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines all hold important positions in Southeast Asia, are founding members of ASEAN, and are key partners of Vietnam in the region.
Secondly, with the profound and comprehensive results mentioned, the visit has elevated our relations with the three ASEAN countries, creating additional important foundations and setting directions to promote deep, substantive relations with our friends in the future. Vietnam's strengthening of cooperative relations with all three countries, especially in the context of many commonalities in the new development phase of each country, aligns with the aspirations of the people and the interests of each country, thereby further enhancing ASEAN unity, contributing positively to peace, stability, cooperation, and prosperity in the region and the world.
Thirdly, with the results and agreements achieved, the visit opens up great opportunities to leverage cooperation, experience, and international resources, particularly from Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, to create additional conditions for achieving strategic goals by 2030 and 2045, and implementing the country's socio-economic development plan until 2030.
Notably, the public in the countries and international public opinion were also very interested in General Secretary, President To Lam's visit to the three countries, especially his first speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The results achieved during the visit and the keynote speech at the Dialogue affirmed our foreign policy of peace, independence, self-reliance, resilience, multilateralization, and diversification of foreign relations, as well as Vietnam's desire to contribute to international and regional issues of common concern. The invitation for General Secretary, President To Lam to deliver the keynote speech not only reflects the international community's respect for Vietnam's role and position but also shows the international community's expectation of Vietnam's contributions to regional peace, security, and development.
In retrospect, it can be seen that the visit clearly demonstrated the foreign policy of the 14th National Party Congress; showcased the innovation in thinking and organizing foreign activities with a focus on effectiveness and substance based on strategic and friendly relationships; and highlighted the effectiveness and significance of head-of-state diplomacy in setting strategic directions for relations, creating momentum, and elevating long-term cooperation between Vietnam and its partners.
What should we do to maximize the effectiveness of the visit's outcomes, Minister?
The comprehensive, strategically significant, and long-term outcomes of the visit will create new momentum, opening a new development phase for the friendly cooperative relations between Vietnam and Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
General Secretary, President, and the leaders of the three countries emphasized implementing the visit's outcomes with a focus on substantive actions and maximizing cooperation potential. During the visit, General Secretary, President To Lam closely directed the implementation of the visit's outcomes.
With the country's new development mindset and spirit, ministries, sectors, and localities need to deeply grasp the common understandings between our senior leaders and the countries, develop specific programs, plans, and projects to implement high-level agreements with the practical benefits of the people as the goal and specific results as the measure. We need to enhance information and communication about the visit's significance, outcomes, and the importance of Vietnam's relations with Southeast Asian countries to create consensus across levels, sectors, and localities.
In cooperation with the countries, we need to strengthen strategic consultations, policy coordination through bilateral exchanges and contacts at high and various levels, and at regional and international forums, prioritizing and promoting substantive cooperation in key areas for each country's development and a peaceful, stable regional environment conducive to development.
Thank you, Minister!
