{"id":469038,"date":"2026-10-22T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/22\/indo-pacifico-ue-e-vietnam-rafforzano-la-loro-cooperazione-con-una-dichiarazione-congiunta\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T19:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:47:50","slug":"indo-pacific-the-eu-and-vietnam-strengthen-their-cooperation-with-a-joint-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/22\/indo-pacific-the-eu-and-vietnam-strengthen-their-cooperation-with-a-joint-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Indo-Pacific: the EU and Vietnam strengthen their cooperation with a joint statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Strengthening \u201cbilateral cooperation, regional security, and global challenges.\u201d This is the central theme of the joint statement signed today<\/a> (22 October) in Brussels<\/a> by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa<\/strong>, and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, T\u00f4 L\u00e2m<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In the document, the EU and Vietnam recognised \u201cthe importance of strengthening resilience, diversifying partnerships and promoting stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, including through the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific<\/a><\/strong>\u201d \u2013 the action plan launched in September 2021 to strengthen the EU\u2019s presence and its political, economic, and security role in the region stretching from the east coast of Africa to the Pacific islands. Accordingly, the two parties \u201cwelcomed\u201d a new impetus in their relations after having already decided in January 2026 to upgrade their bilateral ties to a \u201cGlobal Strategic Partnership\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In addition to their political alignment, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening their partnership through investments under the “Global Gateway<\/a><\/strong>” \u2013 the European Union\u2019s official strategy, launched in December 2021 by the European Commission to promote investment in sustainable, high-quality infrastructure worldwide \u2013 and the \u201cPartnership for a Just Energy Transition\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 the multilateral climate finance platform established to help major emerging and developing economies gradually reduce their use of fossil fuels. For President von der Leyen, these represent \u201cnew opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, therefore, the two sides called for the full implementation of the EU\u2013Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the swift ratification of the investment protection agreement. On her social media channels, von der Leyen also pointed out <\/b><\/a>that the agreement would lead to “a 53 per cent increase in trade.”<\/strong>   <\/p>\n

Other areas in which the two sides intend to cooperate include \u201craw materials, technology and innovation, education and training, the green transition, strategic infrastructure, the circular economy, and the blue economy.\u201d Both sides also recognised the potential for cooperation in the fields of defence and security, expressing appreciation for the role of the \u201cDialogue on defence and security between the EU and Vietnam<\/a>\u201d \u2013 an official mechanism for annual strategic consultation established to strengthen geopolitical and military cooperation between the European Union and Vietnam \u2013 and for the existing cooperation frameworks. <\/p>\n

Finally, the importance of effective multilateralism and a rules-based international order was emphasised. Von der Leyen and Costa also praised the constructive role played by Vietnam within ASEAN \u2013 an acronym for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The two stated that they were looking forward to the EU-ASEAN commemorative summit in 2027, which will mark the 50th anniversary of relations between the two sides.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Also today, the Vietnamese Minister of Education, Hoang Minh Son<\/strong>, and the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Education, Culture, Labour and Social Rights, Roxana M\u00eenzatu<\/strong>, signed a formal letter of intent<\/a> on cooperation in education and training. The agreement aims to expand global academic exchanges and student training, to strengthen joint research initiatives based on mutual respect and equality, and to enhance established programmes, such as Erasmus+, which support links within higher education.<\/p>\n

Outside the walls of the Berlaymont Building, L\u00e2m\u2019s visit was not greeted with jubilation<\/strong>. Protesters of Vietnamese origin staged a demonstration, thereby drawing attention to the intensification of internal political repression in Vietnam. Among the many reasons cited, the activists denounced alleged actions by the Vietnamese authorities against critical voices living abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the document signed today (22 October), the two parties recognised \u201cthe importance of strengthening resilience, diversifying partnerships, and promoting stability and prosperity in Asia\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":469034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788,25707],"tags":[27175,36341,27335,36342,27742,35143],"class_list":["post-469038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-world-politics","tag-accordo-libero-scambio-ue-vietnam","tag-council-en","tag-to-lam","tag-ursula-von-del-leyen-en","tag-vietnam"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469039,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469038\/revisions\/469039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}