Chairman of National Assembly Nguyen Sinh Hung and Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam will pay official visits to Russia this
year.
The information was unveiled by Vietnamese Ambassador to
Russia Pham Xuan Son at an annual New Year meeting with Russian
businesspeople and pressmen in Moscow on February 28.
The event also saw the participation of representatives from the
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development,
Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Moscow authorities.
Ambassador Son also reported that Vietnam and the Customs Union of
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will start talks on possibilities
to establish a four-party free trade area by the end of this March.
Looking
back Vietnam-Russia relations, he spoke of the two countries’
comprehensive strategic partnership, which was formed following
Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s official visit to Russia in
2012.
He also talked about the official Vietnam
visits of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Chairman of the
Federation Council Valentina Matvienko.
The two
countries’ two-way trade achieved a record value of over 3.6 billion USD
in 2012 and is expected to hit 7 billion USD by 2015. Nearly 200,000
Russians went to Vietnam for vacation in 2012.
At the meeting, representatives of Russian businesses stressed the
importance of fostering traditional ties, cooperation and comprehensive
strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam.
Some
delivered proposals to intensify the two countries’ relations, including
expanding goods exchange modes, increasing hi-tech product trade,
cooperating in exporting Vietnam’s rice and other farm produce to a
third country, boosting linkages between small and medium-sized
enterprises and personnel training.-VNA