The FD 2026 adopts the Declaration

Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Loc Ha. (Source: FD 2026)

On behalf of the Ho Chi Minh City leadership, Standing Vice Chairman Nguyen Loc Ha welcomed and highly appreciated the frank spirit of the leaders from various ministries and localities in Vietnam, as well as the speakers and delegates who delivered profound and comprehensive presentations, sharing numerous experiences, new perspectives, and proposing many ideas.

In addition to success stories, the Conference also heard constructive insights on necessary conditions, institutional limitations, and valuable lessons learned in the process of implementing foreign affairs and international integration at the local level.

According to Nguyen Loc Ha, today's valuable opinions have shown that local cooperation networks truly thrive when they can create tangible values and benefits, where enterprises and citizens can jointly enjoy them.

In this spirit, the FD 2026 Declaration was adopted by the parties to acknowledge the shared achievements presented at the Conference; simultaneously setting cooperation directions for the next phase to further concretise commitments into specific actions. This also serves as a foundation for FD to evolve from a meeting forum into a regular, substantive cooperation mechanism.

Additionally, the leadership of Ho Chi Minh City, along with leaders representing sister localities, international partners, and international organisations attending FD 2026, deeply recognize that: In the context of increasingly deep international integration, cities and localities are not merely components of national foreign policy but are increasingly becoming proactive entities directly participating in shaping international cooperation through multilateral, local-level networks.

Acknowledging the important role of local foreign affairs as a driver of development, helping cities attract technology investment and high-quality human resources, and serving the goal of rapid and sustainable growth. Appreciating the profound presentations sharing valuable experiences and specific proposals from localities and international organisations to deepen cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City; expressing gratitude to Ho Chi Minh City for its gracious hospitality and leadership role in successfully organising the third friendship dialogue.

International delegates experiencing Vietnamese cuisine. (Source: FD 2026)

The Declaration also reaffirms the crucial role of local governments as pioneering entities in national foreign policy, not only implementing but also leveraging it to serve the economic development goals of each locality, thereby contributing to shaping and enriching the international cooperation relations of each nation. It promotes increased participation of localities in multilateral local-level networks, including friendship dialogues to share knowledge, connect resources, and collaboratively address common development challenges. Encouraging the use of local foreign affairs as a practical development tool to transform friendly relations and cooperation agreements into specific projects with clear monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

Highly valuing the substantive exchanges at the mayors' conference and two thematic discussion sessions on the role of local institutions in encouraging enterprises to invest in research and development and transforming innovation results into commercial products, and the role of local governments in enhancing cooperation and meeting new generation sustainability standards. Recognising the experiences, policies, and models shared by localities and enterprises to promote research and development, technology transfer, and commercialisation, as well as managing and exploiting seaports and developing the marine economy in a green, smart, and sustainable direction.

Supporting the initiative to promote the establishment of a multilateral city-level cooperation mechanism on seaports and the marine economy, creating a regular forum for data exchange, expanding links and coordination between ports, as well as expanding markets and connecting supply chains to meet new generation sustainability standards.

Welcoming proposals to deepen bilateral cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City in the fields proposed at the Conference, calling on localities to soon establish permanent focal points and specific implementation plans. Agreeing to assign the focal agencies of Ho Chi Minh City and localities to coordinate in developing an action plan towards FD 2028.

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