Estonia steps up ties with Vietnam and Singapore

27.04.2012

At a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Vietnam, Pham Binh, in Brunei today, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet expressed Estonia's wish to sign an agreement on the abolition of double-taxation with Vietnam and applied for visa-free travel of Estonian citizens to Vietnam. “Also, we wish to name an honorary consul of Estonia to Hanoi,” he noted. “We are also interested in closer economic ties with Vietnam and hope for concrete results from the common business seminar taking place in Tallinn in June,” he added.

According to Paet, Estonian-Vietnamese relations would be improved by signing various agreements. “We soon hope to sign a co-operation agreement on education and science; also, we are interested in an agreement on the abolition of double-taxation and economic co-operation agreements.”

According to Paet, Estonia has made every effort for the European Union to sign partnership and co-operation agreements with Vietnam. “Hopefully, the co-operation agreement can be signed in the near future,” Paet said. “We also support launching negotiations on the EU-Vietnam trade agreement,” he added.

When meeting with the Foreign Minister of Singapore, Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, Foreign Minister Paet said that Estonia plans to appoint a non-resident ambassador to Singapore in the near future. “We wish to develop knowledge-based co-operation with Singapore in specific areas,” Paet said. “For instance, medicine, biology, gene technology, IT-solutions and digital media,” he listed.

Paet also called on the investors of Singapore to consider the favourable location and developed infrastructure of Estonia in terms of the transport of goods to the Baltic Sea region. Hopefully, the negotiations on bilateral EU-Singapore trade agreements can be concluded this year,” he added.

The foreign ministers of Estonia and Singapore also discussed co-operation in the UN.

Paet invited the foreign ministers of Vietnam and Singapore on a visit to Estonia.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet is attending the meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei. Paet is due to hold bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Thailand and Myanmar.

Photos of the meeting: http://tinyurl.com/d5qqcvl

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