Photo: VCG

HANOI, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his visiting Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad have agreed to strengthen economic cooperation and deepen collaboration in security and defense, marine cooperation, innovation, science, education and labor between their two countries.

The two prime ministers reached consensus on Tuesday that Vietnam and Malaysia should take more effective measures to increase their two-way trade to 15 billion U.S. dollars in the 2020-2025 period from 11.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The Malaysian prime minister pledged to intensify investment in Vietnam, and assist the country in exporting its goods, especially agricultural products to Malaysia.

The two leaders also agreed to cooperate in fighting against corruption and human trafficking.

After their talks, they witnessed the signing of a letter of intent on inking a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in legal enforcement and search and rescue at sea, and the exchange of letters on the establishment of Malaysia-Vietnam friendship parliamentarians' group.