Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Source: lleastafrica.com)
Hanoi (VNA) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s
visit to Vietnam is considered an important milestone in Vietnam-Egypt cooperation,
which is expected to boost the traditional partnership between the two
countries in all fields.
The visit on September 6-7 at the invitation of President Tran Dai
Quang, will be the first made by a State leader of Egypt to Vietnam since the
two countries set up their diplomatic relations on September 1, 1963.
Egypt was one of the first Arabian countries that formed relations with
Vietnam. Vietnam opened a trade representative office in Egypt in 1958, and its
embassy in Cairo in 1963. In 1964, Egypt launched its embassy in Hanoi.
Over the past years, Egypt has highly valued Vietnam’s stance to issues
related to the Arabian world, especially the Middle East peace process.
The Egyptian government has supported Vietnam in the evacuations of workers
in Libya in 2011 and 2014. The two sides have coordinated closely and supported
each other at international forums, while sharing viewpoints on various issues
at the United Nations.
At the eighth political consultations at Deputy Foreign Ministerial
level in Cairo in May 2015, Egypt committed to giving technical assistance to
Vietnam so the country could be able to issue Halal certificates of food for
Islamic markets.
Egypt has been the second largest trade partner of Vietnam in Africa,
with two-way trade hitting 316 million USD in 2016. Vietnam exported seafood, automobile
spare parts, fabric, black peppercorn, coffee, rubber and other consumer goods
to Egypt and imported mainly chemicals, oil products, milk and dairy products, and
fibres.
Egypt was the first North African country to recognise Vietnam’s full
market economy in November 2013. The country is running two projects in
Vietnam’s Tay Ninh and Khanh Hoa provinces with a combined capital of 750,000
USD.
The Egyptian Government annually offered 12 scholarships in Arabian
language to Vietnam. The two sides have regularly exchanged information in
inspection and culture. The Vietnam-Egypt Friendship Parliamentarian Group was
set up.
The visit of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is hoped to make bilateral cooperation
grow more effectively and extensively, while creating cooperation opportunities
in trade, agriculture, culture and tourism. The two sides will also discuss
regional and international issues of shared concern.-VNA