Party leader leaves for official visit to Russia

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong left Hanoi on September 5 morning, starting his official visit to Russia at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong left Hanoi on September 5 morning, starting his official visit to Russia at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong

The Party chief is accompanied by Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh; Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of its Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh; Secretary of the Party Central Committee and chief of its office Nguyen Van Nen; and head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission on External Relations Hoang Binh Quan; and others.

Following his trip to Russia, which will conclude on September 8, Party General Secretary Trong is scheduled to visit Hungary from September 8 – 11 at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Party leader’s Russia visit to push bilateral ties to new height: Russian official

The Russia visit by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong will help lift bilateral relations to a new height, thus meeting the two peoples’ interests and contributing to peace and development in the region.

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Chairman of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association Vladimir Buianov

Chairman of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association Vladimir Buianov made the affirmation in an interview with Vietnam News Agency ahead of the visit, which takes place from September 5-8.

Buianov said bilateral ties are developing well. The two countries have high political trust, reflected through regular visits by their high-ranking leaders, and have relatively similar stances on international issues.

Two-way trade has exceeded 3 billion USD, and is expected to rise to 10 billion USD by 2020.

The current figure fails to meet the nations’ potential and capacity, but several positive signs have been seen, he said.

According to him, the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which became effective in October 2016, has helped increase Vietnam-Russia trade.

Vietnam has invested in husbandry in Russia, most notably the project Vietnamese dairy firm TH True Milk’s cow breeding and dairy processing complex.

The two countries should establish a joint venture in the husbandry sector, he suggested.

To boost bilateral trade, Buianov stressed the need to implement signed agreements and commitments, and expand collaboration between the nations’ small- and medium-sized enterprises.

He expressed his belief that Party General Secretary Trong’s visit will help enhance bilateral ties in both politics and economy.

Party chief’s visit to bolster comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh

The upcoming visit to Russia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong during September 5-8 will create new impetus to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia, said Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh.

In a recent interview granted to Vietnam News Agency, Ambassador Manh affirmed that the visit aims to reinforce Vietnam’s foreign policy of attaching importance to and promoting its comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia.

He stressed that the visit is especially significant as relations between Vietnam and Russia have witnessed a fruitful and practical development phase in terms of both Party and State channels, as well as local cooperation and people-to-people exchange.

Vietnam considers Russia one of its most important and trusted partners, Manh said.

Bilateral political relations have been strengthened with high trust through the regular exchange of delegations and meetings at all levels – especially at senior levels and consultation mechanisms and strategic dialogue.

The two sides also cooperated and supported each other in multilateral forums such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and ASEAN.

Economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries continues to develop dynamically. Two-way trade in 2017 reached 3.55 billion USD, and increased by 42 percent year-on-year during the first half of 2018 .

Other cooperation areas – such as security and defence, education and training, and science and technology – have also been developing rapidly.

In recent times, collaboration between the two countries’ localities have recorded especially effective progress, particularly in economic and trade ties, cultural and people-to-people exchange, and tourism development.

According to the ambassador, Vietnam and Russia still have a lot of work to do to upgrade relations, especially as the two countries’ high-ranking leaders agreed on a target to reach a bilateral trade turnover of 10 billion USD by 2020.

In parallel with comprehensive and effective implementation of cooperation agreements, the ministries, departments, agencies, and enterprises of both nations should actively seek new and feasible methods to bolster cooperation, Manh stressed.

For example, one possibility is to look into the establishment of a joint venture to produce agricultural products for consumption in the Russian market and the Commonwealth of Independent States, he said.

He also underlined the need for the two sides to speed up the implementation of cooperation projects in automobile and tractor assembling, health care, renewable energy, as well as plant seeds, pesticide, and medicinal production.

Reality has demonstrated that Russian consumers are very fond of Vietnamese products like farm produce, coffee, tea, clothes, and footwear, but they have not gained a foothold in Russian supermarkets yet.

In order to remove this bottleneck, besides efforts made by authorised agencies to tackle technical barriers, enthusiastic involvement from enterprises is needed to create a strong push in trade promotion.

The diplomat said that in the forthcoming meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Committee for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technological Cooperation, he will point out all existing barriers facing Vietnamese enterprises and ask the Russian side to find suitable solutions.

He said he hopes political credibility will continue to be strengthened, and that bilateral cooperation will be expanded and become more practical.

“I hope that the two countries will see through many successful collaboration projects in the time to come, bringing about benefits for both sides,” he said.