President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday welcomed Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in the capital of Ankara.

The pair held a closed-door meeting at the Presidential Complex, the Turkish Presidency said in a statement.

Ankara is set to open a consulate general in Vietnam’s economic capital, Ho Ci Minh City, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz confirmed after holding talks with Pham Minh Chinh earlier in the day.

Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to Ankara was the first of its kind on a prime ministerial level, marking the 46th anniversary of Vietnamese-Turkish diplomatic ties.

In 2015, then-Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu paid the first visit to Vietnam on a foreign minister level after a 17-year interval. Both nations have resident embassies in Hanoi and Ankara.

Vietnam sent a large search-and-rescue team to southeastern Türkiye in February when two massive earthquakes leveled 11 provinces and claimed over 52,000 lives.

"We have also agreed to increase our mutual visits and dialogue," Yılmaz told reporters.

Vietnam is a key trading partner for Türkiye in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.

"Military issues and the defense industry are a dimension of our relations that need to be developed," Yılmaz said.

He and Pham Minh Chinh agreed to increase cooperation in combating international terrorism and transnational crimes.

The pair further discussed the "grave developments" in Palestine, expressing the "will to end the attacks on Gaza as soon as possible and to initiate a political process that will result in a just and permanent peace based on the two-state solution."