Najib and Vietnam's President Truong Tan San at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi
HANOI: Malaysia has expressed gratitude to the Vietnamese government for its support and assistance during the early days of the search for the missing Flight MH370.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Vietnam had been forthcoming in deploying its assets and in sharing relevant information on the missing aircraft.
"Malaysia will not give up in its efforts to locate the plane, and we are grateful for the assistance from our friends," he said at a joint press conference after an hour-long bilateral meeting with his counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung here.
Najib, who arrived here from Perth, Australia Friday is on a three-day visit to Vietnam. This is his first formal visit to the country after becoming prime minister in 2009.
Flight MH370 with 239 people on board and enroute to Beijing, disappeared from the radar, on March 8 over the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, about an hour after take-off from the KL International Airport.
On the bilateral meeting, Najib said it was a very constructive and fruitful discussion, providing an opportunity to exchange views on significant bilateral matters as well as international developments of interest to Malaysia and Vietnam.
Najib said Malaysia and Vietnam agreed that the time had come for the renewal of their excellent relations so that the bilateral relations could also become strategic relations.
"In this regard, we have agreed to task both our foreign ministers in a joint commission to provide the substance and the content on which our new relations will be based," he said.
Total trade between Malaysia and Vietnam, he said, had increased by 67 per cent from 2010 to 2013. The two countries have targeted to increase total trade to US$11bil in 2015, from the present US$9bil.
Earlier, Najib and Dung witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to further enhance collaboration between the two countries in the field of agriculture.
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