President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will go on a state visit to Vietnam in January 2024 as the two nations seek to reinvigorate their strategic partnership formed in 2015.

In his opening remarks for the 10th Philippine-Vietnam Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation meeting on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the visit would provide an opportunity for both Marcos and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong “to discuss how to raise our bilateral ties to even greater heights”.

“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently finished his first year in office, and we have seen a remarkable display of trust and confidence between our two countries,” he said.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia, Marcos and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed to strengthen the strategic partnership by expanding engagement on various areas of cooperation, including defense and security.

The Chief Executive also sought to craft an agreement to avoid any untoward incident in the South China Sea.

“And that’s why, I have asked our foreign ministers, ating (our) Foreign Secretary and then the Foreign Minister of Vietnam to begin, develop the talks so that we can have an agreement na hindi na siguro magkaproblema ng mga ganyang klase (to avoid any problem),” he told reporters in a May 11 interview on board PR001.

The upcoming state visit will come as Manila and Hanoi cap its five-year Plan of Action in 2024.

“Our Plan of Action will end its five-year course in 2024 so we would need to negotiate a new plan and reinvigorate it, and this will guide our strategic partnership for another five years,” Manalo said.

Among the areas Manila hope to further strengthen with Hanoi are maritime cooperation, trade and investment promotion, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation in ASEAN and other multilateral fora, among others. (PNA)