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Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you today. It is a pleasure to be here with you all to celebrate Vietnam’s 74th National Day.

An important and busy year lies ahead of Germany and Vietnam: in 2020, Vietnam will celebrate 75 years of independence, and Germany will mark the 30th anniversary of German unity. In addition, both of our countries will be non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in 2020.

Ambassador,
Congratulations on the outstanding result of Vietnam’s election to the UN Security Council in June this year! It reflects the world’s respect for Vietnam’s growing engagement as a peaceful regional player, its interest in jointly addressing global challenges, and its commitment to multilateralism.

We are looking forward to this joint membership of the Security Council next year. It will create many opportunities for our bilateral cooperation.

Excellencies, friends and colleagues,
The world order is being challenged, not only in Europe’s neighbourhood, but also in South East Asia. New security threats are emerging. The multilateral and rules-based international order we have taken for granted over the past decades is coming under increasing pressure.

To preserve it and make it more resilient, like-minded countries have to work together to stabilise and uphold the rules-based order, including freedoms and rights under the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS.

Ladies and gentlemen,
The Security Council is the crucial forum for our engagement for multilateralism and upholding the rules-based order, of course, but 2020 will open up further ways to cooperate at multilateral and bilateral level: Vietnam will hold the ASEAN presidency, and Germany the EU Council Presidency in the second half of the year.

I am convinced that Germany and Vietnam can play a decisive role in facilitating an even closer and deeper cooperation between the EU and ASEAN and that they can act as bridge-builders.

Ladies and gentlemen,
As described, an intense 2020 – full of opportunities (and some challenges) – lies ahead of us.

2019 has certainly been a significant year, too: Vietnam is the second ASEAN member state with which the EU has signed a Free Trade Agreement. This FTA is a milestone in our joint efforts to strengthen the open, multilateral, rules-based international trading system.

As you may all know, Germany is Vietnam’s biggest trading partner in Europe, and the FTA will open up further options for German and Vietnamese business.

Ambassador,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have pointed out that the upcoming months will create numerous new opportunities for our governments to cooperate. However, our bilateral relations are much more than this: they are multi-faceted and range from science to archaeology, from language teaching and fighting climate change to, maybe most importantly, the close and deep friendship between our peoples, which represents a unique bridge between your country and ours.

The German-Vietnamese friendship is the strong foundation on which our relations are built.

I would like to suggest that we raise our glasses to the friendship between Germany and Vietnam as well as the German and Vietnamese people!

---Thank you---