In her speech, the NA Chairwoman emphasized that scientific successes have benefited all nations, however, the world is facing an array of complicated issues, such as climate change, poverty, terrorism, extremism, non-traditional security threats, discrimination and racial and religious conflicts.
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan meeting with overseas Vietnamese in Saint Peterburg
Ms. Ngan believed that weapons, wars and violence alone could not address conflicts but tolerance, sincere dialogue, respect, trust, and mutual understanding among peoples and religions can bring about peace and stability,. Therefore, she spoke highly of the IPU-137’s theme “Promoting cultural pluralism and peace through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue.”
Chairwoman Ngan elaborated that Vietnam is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country. In the history of the national construction and development, people of different ethnic groups and religions have lived in peace and together built up the special Vietnamese culture, language, and faith. The constitution, institutions and laws of Vietnam stipulate that all ethnic groups and religions are equal. The Vietnamese NA regularly observes the implementation of policies to ensure the rights of participation, in all legal activities, of all people, regardless of ethnicities or religions.
In order to strengthen cultural pluralism and peace through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue, the Vietnamese leader proposed five recommendations, particularly focusing on encouraging IPU’s member parliaments to build better legal mechanisms to guarantee equality for all ethnic groups and religions, and to observe the implementation of those policies. Additionally, countries should be encouraged to create criteria for evaluating the efficiency of their guidelines and laws towards ethnic minorities and religions, promote information dissemination on tolerance, cooperative willingness, solidarity and mutual respect among ethnicities and religions and foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation on culture, religions and ethnic groups among countries and parliaments. Moreover, the IPU members should associate with the United Nations and international organizations to boost initiatives and actions of law makers for peace, cooperation and solidarity among ethnic groups and religions.
* During her stay in Russia, NA Chairwoman Ngan met with the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Ali Ardeshir Larijani.
The two leaders expressed their pleasure at the development of the Vietnam-Iran traditional ties over the previous times, including the parliamentary relationship.
They also agreed to further boost their relations, including enhancing delegation exchanges to share their legislative experiences, promoting mutual bilateral parliamentary cooperation and observance to boost the implementation of their signed agreements, as well as supporting each other at the regional and global fora.
* At the meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (RoK), Chung Sye-Kyun, Ms. Ngan underlined that the two countries should continually heighten the strategic partnership for the sake of their peoples.
The Vietnamese and RoK NAs should cooperate closely to observe the implementation of agreements signed by the two countries, support the two Governments to boost the bilateral cooperation, promote exchanges between the two NAs’ agencies, uphold the role of the two Friendly Parliamentarian Groups under an agreement of the two NAs and actively back each other at international fora like the IPU, ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), and AsiaPacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF).
For his part, Mr. Chung Sye-Kyun laid stress on the traditional relations of Vietnam and the RoK, and added that the two countries need to boost cooperation in key fields, including high-ranking delegation exchanges, to further deepen the bilateral ties.
Meeting with Deputy-Chairman of the Chinese National People's Congress Zhang Ping, the Vietnamese NA Chairwoman congratulated China’s Party, State and people on their achievements over the past time and held that Vietnam always attached great importance to the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations.
In turn, the Chinese official highlighted the socio-political successes of Vietnam under the sound leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Vietnam and China have been seeing increasing parliamentary cooperation, contributing to the development of bilateral ties.
In order to further enhance the relations, Ms. Ngan suggested that the two sides continue to prepare well for their high-ranking visits and meetings and affirmed that Vietnam appreciates the planned official visit to Vietnam of Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.
She suggested that the two countries’ relevant ministries, agencies and localities effectively implement agreements reached by their top leaders, especially in addressing current issues and extending cooperation, for the sake of both sides.
Chairwoman Ngan concluded that the cooperation between the Vietnamese NA and the Chinese National People's Congress will contribute considerably to the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.
Translated by Van Hieu