Vietnam and Sri Lanka marked a promotion of their judicial relations by the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the two ministries in Hanoi on April 22. The MoU was signed by Vietnamese Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong and his Sri Lankan counterpart Abdul Rauff Hakeem after they had a talk the same day. At the talk, the two ministers expressed their pleasure at the cooperation among the legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the two countries. Cuong highly valued Sri Lanka’s development achievements in the past and informed his guest that Vietnam has been recognized as a full member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law as of April 10, 2013.

Sri Lankan Minister Hakeem encouraged Vietnam to apply arbitration model for the settlement of disputes, especially among businesses. Cuong praised cooperation between Vietnam and Sri Lanka at international forums like the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the ASEAN Regional Forum.

One day later, Sri Lankan Minister Hakeem was received by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who affirmed that Vietnam will boost judicial cooperation with Sri Lanka.

In addition, the two countries should further enhance cooperation in economics, trade, investment, education, training and culture, the PM said. Dung also thanked Sri Lanka for its recognition of Vietnam as a full market economy and its support for Vietnam’s candidacy to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Dung hailed the MoU signed between the Sri Lankan minister and his Vietnamese counterpart on April 22.

Hakeem told Dung that Sri Lanka wishes to strengthen justice cooperation with Vietnam and receive support from Vietnam, in particular experience sharing in multilateral judicial assistance, conciliation, legal assistance, law building and execution, and training of experts.