Vietnam – Meeting between Catherine Colonna and her counterpart (June 5, 2023)

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna met today with her Vietnamese counterpart, Bui Tanh Son.

She lauded the first bilateral visit to France by a Vietnamese foreign minister in 10 years. The two ministers hailed the close ties between our two countries as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of French-Vietnamese diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership.

The ministers agreed to deepen our bilateral relationship. Regular bilateral consultations will be held to strengthen our strategic partnership and step up person-to-person connections in future-oriented cultural, education and scientific collaborations, and to focus our economic partnership on the challenges of climate change and the digital transformation. The French minister assured Vietnam of France’s wish to do its utmost for the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) finalized in late 2022 by Vietnam and its G7 partners.

The two ministers expressed their deep commitment to seeing all nations abide by international law, especially in the areas of sovereignty and territorial integrity. The French minister emphasized that Russia must fully abide by those principles in any settlement of its war of aggression in Ukraine.

She stressed the importance that France attributes to deepening its development partnership with ASEAN and its observer status within ADMM-Plus as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, and thanked Vietnam for its support. The two ministers expressed their concern over the deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation in Myanmar following the coup d’état and called for the implementation of ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus.

Croatia – Meeting between Catherine Colonna and her counterpart (June 5, 2023)

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna hosted her Croatian counterpart, Gordan Grlić Radman, in Paris on June 5.

The two ministers underscored the intensity and diversity of the relationship between France and Croatia as well as their close cooperation within the EU and NATO ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12.

They also reviewed the international and European situation, reaffirming our shared support for Ukraine in the Russian war of aggression against that country. Additionally, they addressed the issue of the Western Balkans, calling for the easing of tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. They reiterated France and Croatia’s shared commitment to the European prospects of the countries in that region, as well as the importance of moving ahead with the expected reforms that are part of the EU enlargement process.

At the end of their meeting, the ministers signed the 2023-2025 France-Croatia action plan, which formulates the details of the strategic partnership between the two countries that was agreed to by French President Emmanuel Macron and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on November 25, 2021 in Zagreb. Ms. Colonna also signed the French instrument of ratification for the Agreement on the Participation of the Republic of Croatia in the European Economic Area (EEA), concrete evidence of Croatia’s membership in the European family.