NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man's visit to Malaysia and participation in AIPA-46: Vietnam's commitment to a sustainable and inclusive ASEAN
WVR - On September 15, ahead of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man's participation in the 46th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46) and official visit to Malaysia, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Anh Tuan gave an interview for the World and Vietnam Report, sharing his thoughts for the trip.
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| NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man's visit to Malaysia and participation in AIPA-46: Deputy Foreign Minister Le Anh Tuan speaks to the press ahead of the trip. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Could the Deputy Minister elaborate on the significance of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man's trip to attend the 46th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46) and his official visit to Malaysia?
National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, representing the leadership of Vietnam's Party and State, along with his spouse and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, will attend the 46th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46) at the invitation of Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia and AIPA 46 President Dato' Johari Bin Abdul. He will also make an official visit to Malaysia at the invitation of Malaysia's Senate President Dato' Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah from September 16-20, 2025.
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Vietnam's accession to ASEAN and participation in AIPA (1995-2025), this visit is an opportunity for Vietnam to affirm its role and contributions, further enhancing achieved results, and continuing efforts with member parliaments to strengthen internal unity, maintain a stable and peaceful environment, and build a resilient and strong community, continuing to play a central role in the regional cooperation structure.
As ASEAN and Vietnam enter a new development phase, we will actively work with ASEAN countries to comprehensively and effectively implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and its strategic plans, ensuring alignment and integration with the development plans and strategies of member countries. This includes maximizing new growth drivers such as science and technology, innovation, digital economy, and green transition, contributing to inclusive and sustainable development in the region, in line with this year's ASEAN and AIPA themes.
At this AIPA-46 General Assembly, Vietnam will actively participate and contribute numerous proposals and initiatives to further promote regional cooperation and the role and contributions of parliamentary diplomacy. We will propose strengthening AIPA cooperation in several high-priority areas such as cybersecurity, economy and digital transformation, enhancing intra-regional trade, promoting sustainable development, and improving cooperation efficiency with partners. We will engage in discussions and share experiences in legislative development and parliamentary oversight to facilitate inclusive and sustainable growth, ensuring that everyone benefits from development achievements and no one is left behind. Additionally, Vietnam will collaborate with other countries to discuss and propose directions and measures to enhance parliamentary cooperation, emphasizing the role of parliamentary diplomacy in addressing regional issues, maintaining peace and stability, and deepening relations and exchanges among the people.
On a bilateral level, this is the first official visit to Malaysia by the Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman since the official upgrade of relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Malaysia (November 2024). This visit aims to promote more effective and substantive bilateral parliamentary cooperation between Vietnam and Malaysia, contributing to creating a legal framework for governments and businesses of both countries to strengthen cooperation.
This visit by National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man also clearly demonstrates Vietnam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation, and development, multilateralization, diversification of foreign relations, prioritizing the development of relations with Southeast Asia and ASEAN, including Malaysia – the ASEAN Chair in 2025. It is also Vietnam's commitment to collaborating with Malaysia and ASEAN countries to build a "sustainable and inclusive" ASEAN Community, united and strong, reinforcing ASEAN's central role in the regional structure.
Could the Deputy Minister elaborate on Vietnam-Malaysia relations and expectations for the visit?
Vietnam-Malaysia relations are currently in a particularly favorable phase of development. The two countries upgraded their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in November 2024 during the official visit of General Secretary To Lam to Malaysia, opening up numerous new cooperation opportunities, especially in areas aligned with global trends such as digital transformation and sustainable development. The two countries are increasingly cooperating deeply in politics, economy, defense, security, culture, education, and people-to-people exchanges.
In politics, security, and defense, both sides are enhancing high-level and various-level delegation exchanges. Maritime cooperation has achieved positive results, notably the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation (December 2023) after five years of negotiations. Both sides are strengthening cooperation in potential and strong areas such as training cooperation, defense technology transfer research, and effectively coordinating in implementing multilateral international treaties on crime prevention, to which both countries are parties.
Economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries continues to be a highlight in recent years. Malaysia remains Vietnam's third-largest trading partner in ASEAN and ninth globally, and is among the top 10 largest investors in Vietnam. Bilateral trade turnover between the two countries has steadily increased each year, reaching over 9.23 billion USD by the end of July 2025, an 8% increase compared to the same period in 2024, and is approaching the target of 8 billion USD in the near future.
Parliamentary cooperation is one of the important channels contributing to strengthening strategic trust between the two countries. It is not only a crucial political-legal dialogue channel but also promotes young parliamentarian exchanges, enhancing experience sharing in legislative development, thereby providing additional impetus for economic development, investment, and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides.
I am confident that the upcoming visit by the National Assembly Chairman will not only contribute to enhancing political trust and deepening existing cooperation areas between Vietnam and Malaysia but also outline specific directions for implementing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries in diverse fields, particularly strengthening and elevating cooperation between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Malaysian Parliament, becoming a solid political-legal bridge, making practical contributions to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.Thank you, Deputy Minister!
