Vietnam and the United Kingdom have signed 26 cooperation deals, covering areas from trade, agriculture, education, and training to energy and environmental protection. This potentially makes Vietnam the UK’s biggest trade partner in ASEAN.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and witnessed the ceremony to sign the agreements between ministries, various sectors, and businesses from Vietnam and the United Kingdom on Monday.

The 26 agreements include:

• A Letter of Intent to join the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition
• An Agreement on Cooperation to develop an action plan to strengthen links between the two countries higher education institutions
• A Memorandum of Understanding on enhancing cooperation in education through the exchange of experience and best strategies 
• A Cooperation Agreement to develop human resource training programs for the Ministry of Planning and Investment and support for Vietnamese start-ups

At the same event, Vietjet Air and Rolls-Royce Group signed an agreement to provide engines and engineering services for the airline’s wide-bodied fleet, valued at US$400 million, while SOVICO and HDBank did deals worth hundreds of millions of USD with UK partners.

The combined value of the agreements signed is in the billions of US dollars.