Speaker of the House of Representatives of Morocco Rachid Talbi Alami (left) welcomes Chairman of the National Assembly Trần Thanh Mẫn (centre) and his wife at Salé Rabat airport. — VNA/VNS Photo

National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn and his wife Nguyễn Thị Thanh Nga, along with a high-ranking delegation of Việt Nam, arrived in Rabat on Thursday evening (local time), beginning a four-day official visit to Morocco.

The chairman and his entourage were welcomed at Salé Rabat airport by Speaker of the Moroccan House of Representatives Rachid Talbi Alami, and Vietnamese Ambassador to Morocco Lê Kim Quy.

Immediately after, the two parliament leaders had a brief meeting.

Since establishing diplomatic relations on March 27, 1961, the friendship and bonds between Việt Nam and Morocco have been steadily strengthened and developed across multiple sectors.

Political and diplomatic relations between the two countries have achieved significant milestones through increasingly frequent high-level delegation exchanges. Both sides have supported each other at multilateral forums.

Bilateral trade turnover in 2024 reached over US$302 million, a year-on-year increase of 28.5 per cent. Việt Nam exported $275.95 million worth of products to Morocco, primarily mobile phones and components, pepper, and coffee, while Morroco sold $26.52 million of goods, mainly computers and electronic components, fertilisers, leather, and footwear to the Southeast Asian country.

Parliamentary cooperation between Việt Nam and Morocco is growing.

Việt Nam's National Assembly and Morocco's House of Representatives signed a cooperation agreement during the official visit of Moroccan House Speaker Habib El Malki to Việt Nam in December 2017. Both sides have promoted exchanges of delegations at all levels over the past years, which have paved the way for collaboration in many other areas.

Multilaterally, both parliaments have maintained contact and consultation at such forums as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly (APF).

With the support of the Vietnamese National Assembly, which held the Chairmanship of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2020, the Moroccan Parliament was officially admitted as an AIPA observer in September 2020.

During the visit, Chairman Mẫn is scheduled to hold high-level talks and meetings with Morocco’s senior leaders. He will also engage in policy discussions with businesses and meet with the Vietnamese community in Morocco.

He will attend a seminar on legal policies to promote economic, trade and investment cooperation between Việt Nam and Morocco, hold a meeting with the President of the Morocco - Việt Nam Friendship Association, President of the Morocco - Việt Nam Friendship Parliamentarians Group, meet with staff of the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community in Morocco.

This is the first official visit by a key Vietnamese leader to Morocco in six years. It will create a strong impetus for the two sides to continue promoting cooperation, especially in trade, investment, agriculture and tourism, towards the goal of achieving $500 million in bilateral trade in the coming years. — VNS