President Tran Dai Quang (left) and Russian President Putin (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – President Tran Dai Quang’s official visits to
Russia and Belarus were a success, and their fruitful outcomes have made the
relations between Vietnam and the two countries more comprehensive and
effective, stated Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son.
The Deputy FM said that President Quang’svisits, spanning from June 26
to July 1, markeda strong progress in the increasingly practical partnership
with the two traditional and promising partners.
The visits were the first ones made by the President to the two
countries since he took office in 2016, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Russia October Revolution, the 25th anniversary
of the Vietnam-Belarus diplomatic ties, and the fruitful period of the Vietnam-Eurasian
Economic Union free trade agreement.
At meetings with President Quang, Russian leaders affirmed that the
country considers Vietnam one of the priorities in the Asia-Pacific region and is
keen on boosting cooperation with Vietnam in all fields, he noted.
The President also held meetings with representatives of the business
community, localities, the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association and Russian
veterans who spent time in Vietnam who expressed their wish to contribute to
further tightening the Vietnam-Russia ties.
Meanwhile, Belarus leaders, especially President A. Lukachenko, highly
valued the traditional relationship with Vietnam, regarding the Southeast Asian
nation as a trustworthy partner in Southeast Asia.
The two sides shared hope and determination to deepen their friendship
and cooperation and lift the ties to a new height.
During the visits, Vietnam signed 14 cooperation agreements with Russia
and nine deals with Belarus in various fields, including economy, defence,
security, sports and tourism, natural resources and environment,
science-technology and cooperation between localities.
According to Son, following the visits, Vietnam and Russia issued a
joint statement, while President Tran Dai Quang and his Belarusian counterpart
A. Lukashenko signed a joint declaration on the comprehensive and extensive
development of the bilateral partnership.
President Tran Dai Quang and Russian and Belarusian leaders agreed to
optimize the advantages of the Vietnam-EAEU free trade agreement to create a
strong boost to economic-trade collaboration, targeting 10 billion USD in trade
with Russia and 500 million USD with Belarus by 2020, he said.
Vietnam and Russia concurred to focus on increasing investment and set
up joint ventures, while effectively implement prioritised cooperation projects
in oil and gas, energy, machinery manufacturing and automobile assembling, and
expanding collaboration to agriculture, transport infrastructure building, and
telecommunication.
At the same time, Belarus is willing to cooperate with Vietnam in areas
ofVietnam’s demand, including automobile assembling, infrastructure building,
IT, chemicals and agriculture. The Vietnam-Belarus automobile assemblingjoint venture
MAZ Asia is scheduled to become operational in late 2017.
The Deputy FM went on to say that during the visits, the Vietnam-Russia
and Vietnam-Belarus economic seminars were successful, showing businesses’ determination
to tap opportunities from the Vietnam-EAEU free trade agreement.
Vietnam and Russia agreed to continue strengthening cooperation in
atomic energy, affiliation among localities, and partnership in education and
training as well as organising Russian Culture Days in Vietnam in 2017.
Vietnam and Belarus shared the wish to bolster cooperation in
science-technology, culture, education-training, ICT and connections among
localities.
Both countries also pledged to coordinate closely with Vietnam at
multilateral mechanisms.
Son also stressed his impression at a meeting between President Tran Dai
Quang and war veterans and experts of Russia and Belarus who devoted their
youth to Vietnam. President Quang said Vietnam is always grateful to the people
of Russia and Belarus for their whole-hearted support.
During his stay, President Quang paid special attention to the
Vietnamese communities in the host countries, added Son.-VNA