On the sidelines of the 2025 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting (MRT) held on May 15 in Jeju, Republic of Korea (RoK), Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien held a bilateral meeting with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the WTO’s request.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien and WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo - Iweala at the meeting.

During the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien reiterated Vietnam’s strong support for the multilateral trading system and emphasized the importance of upholding international commitments. He urged the WTO to further assert its central role in safeguarding global trade order and called for comprehensive reforms to strengthen the organization’s relevance in the face of evolving global economic dynamics.

The Minister reaffirmed Vietnam’s commitment to working closely with other WTO members to advance discussions on reform initiatives. These efforts aim to yield concrete proposals to be presented for adoption at the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14), scheduled for March 2026 in Cameroon.

Director-General Okonjo-Iweala warmly welcomed the opportunity to reconnect with Minister Diên and voiced strong support for Vietnam’s positions and proposals. She expressed confidence that with the active participation of members such as Vietnam, MC14 could deliver meaningful outcomes that reinforce the WTO’s role in global trade and benefit all member economies. She also praised Vietnam’s pragmatic approach to addressing trade challenges and shared views with the Minister on current efforts to promote global trade development.

Both leaders expressed optimism that the APEC MRT would yield consensus-driven outcomes, contributing to stronger economic growth across member economies.

Following his meeting with the WTO Director-General, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien and the Vietnamese delegation continued a series of bilateral and multilateral engagements. These included discussions with Republic of Korea's Minister of Trade Cheong In-kyo, participation in the ASEAN Caucus—a coordination meeting of ASEAN economic ministers within APEC—and a working session with Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Takuma.

Earlier the same day, Minister Dien also held talks with representatives of the U.S.-APEC Business Coalition. In this session, he addressed key concerns from American businesses regarding Vietnam’s investment climate, ongoing efforts to enhance the business environment, and initiatives to support bilateral trade and investment. Topics discussed included tax policy dialogue and measures to remove bottlenecks in order to facilitate operations and cooperation between Vietnamese and U.S. enterprises.