VietNamNet Bridge – The Permanent Under Secretary of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Peter Ricketts, will pay a visit to Vietnam early this week, reported the UK Embassy in Hanoi.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung paid a visit to the UK last March.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry also announced the visit and said that Mr. Ricketts will come to Hanoi to join the first political consulting meeting at the Deputy Foreign Minister level between the two countries on January 13.

During Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the UK last March, the two Foreign Ministries signed a memorandum of understanding, under which the two sides agreed to conduct annual political consulting meetings at the Deputy Foreign Minister Level or high-ranking diplomatic officials.

Based on that MoU, the two sides arrange the first consulting meeting early next week. The UK mission is led by Mr. Ricketts, the Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Vietnamese mission by Deputy Foreign Minister, Nguyen Quoc Cuong.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said the meeting will focus on bilateral cooperation, cooperation between the two Foreign Ministries and other issues of common concern.

After the meeting, the two sides will sign the “Vietnam-UK Vision of Action to 2013.”

Xuan Linh