President Nguyen Minh Triet met with Pope Benedict XVI last year.

The second meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group which will be held in Vatican on June 23-24, announced the Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga.

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Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong will lead the Vietnamese delegation to Vatican while the Vatican delegation will be headed by Undersecretary for Relations with States Ettore Balestrero, the spokeswoman said.

The meeting will focus on further discussion and implementation of the contents of the first meeting in Hanoi in February 2009.

The first meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group in February 2009 was chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong and Vatican Deputy Foreign Minister Pietro Parolin.

During his visit to Italy late last year, President Nguyen Minh Triet met with Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican PM Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. In these meetings, President Triet confirmed that Vietnam is ready to boost relations with the Vatican on the basis of respecting fundamental principles of international laws for the sake of world peace, cooperation and development.

Previously, establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Vatican was mentioned in a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and PM Nguyen Tan Dung in Vatican in January 2007.

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