PUTRAJAYA, Aug 7 — Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung at his office here today in conjunction with the latter’s two-day official visit to Malaysia.

The two leaders held a restricted meeting at Perdana Putra here before proceeding for the delegation meeting.

Earlier, Najib had welcomed Nguyen at the lobby of the Prime Minister’s Department at the Perdana Putra Building here. The ceremony was held at the lobby because of rain.

Nguyen and his wife Tran Thanh Kiem were greeted by Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor upon their arrival at 3.30pm, and the national anthems of both countries were played.

Nguyen then inspected a guard-of-honour mounted by 106 officers and men from the 1st Battalion Royal Malay Regiment.

Several cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats and senior government officials also attended the ceremony.

A Wisma Putra statement said Nguyen’s visit was upon the invitation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

This is Nguyen’s third visit to Malaysia since his appointment as the prime minister in 2006 Nguyen and Najib are expected to take stock of the progress of existing bilateral relations and discuss enhancement of many areas of sectoral cooperation for the mutual benefit of both countries, the statement said. — Bernama