Vietnam always attaches importance to strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia on the basis of close friendship and enhancing effective and practical cooperation in all fields, President Tran Dai Quang told visiting Chairwoman of Russia’s Federal Council Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko.

President Tran Dai Quang (R) hosts visiting Chairwoman of Russia’s Federal Council Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko

During a reception for the Russian top legislator in Hanoi on February 21, President Quang expressed his hope that the two countries will witness breakthroughs in economic and trade cooperation in 2017, suggesting the two sides soon early reach consensus on priority areas of cooperation for the year.

He stressed Vietnam considers energy cooperation with Russia as a strategic field, adding that Vietnam highly evaluates the effective operation of the joint ventures Vietsovpetro and Rusvietpetro, as well as contributions by the two countries’ petroleum industries to bilateral economic relations. 

The President noted that the two sides should coordinate closely to effectively implement the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, thus fully tapping advantages brought by the deal to expand export and investment to each other’s markets.

In addition, Vietnam wishes to further foster cooperative ties with Russia in the fields of security-defence, education-training, culture, tourism and science-technology, as well as affiliation between localities, President Quang said.

 Agreeing on the host’s view, Chairwoman Matvienko said enhancing cooperation with Vietnam in all fields is a top priority in Russia’s foreign policy, adding that the Federal Council and parliamentarians will do their best to contribute to strengthening bilateral relations. 

She urged the two countries to further step up cooperation so as to lift two-way trade to 10 billion USD by 2020 from the figure of 2.7 billion USD in 2016.

Russia wants to import more Vietnamese farm produce, she stated, noting that Russian localities have closely cooperated with Vietnamese counterparts, especially in the fields of trade, investment, culture, and education-training. 

The Russian legislator noted with pleasure the growing cooperation in tourism as 430,000 Russian holidaymakers visited Vietnam last year.

Russia pays attention to ties with Vietnamese legislature

President of the Federal Council of Russia Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko (L) and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan 

President of the Federal Council of Russia Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko has stated that Russia pays heed to further strengthening friendship and cooperation between the two legislatures of Russia and Vietnam. 

She made the statement during talks with National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan right after the welcome ceremony in Hanoi on February 21. 

Matvienko expressed her delight at the maintenance of regular political dialogues at all levels, particularly at parliamentary, ministry and agency levels. 

According to her, both sides made a number of important commitments during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s official visit to Russia in May 2016, as well as a meeting between the Vietnamese and Russian Presidents on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Peru in late 2016, which she said, have laid down orientations to the development of bilateral ties. 

Russia treasures the development of bilateral economic and investment ties, she stated, adding that Vietnam has become the first country to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), opening a new opportunity to accelerate economic-trade links and facilitate Vietnam’s access to goods from EEU and vice versa. 

Positive results have also been recorded in cultural cooperation as Vietnam Cultural Days were regularly launched in Russia as were Russian Cultural Days in Vietnam. Over 300,000 Russians visited Vietnam in 2016, and the figure will rise in the future. 

Hailing partnership between the two countries’ localities as an effective cooperation channel, Matvienko suggested the friendship parliamentarian organisations of the two nations make a report on the efficiency of their joint work. 

On education-training, more than 50,000 Vietnamese experts have so far been trained in Russia, which also considers increasing scholarships to Vietnamese students. Last year, Russia offered 1,000 State scholarships to Vietnamese students, ahead of the 2018 deadline. 

NA Chairwoman Ngan, for her part, reiterated that Vietnam always prioritises reinforcing and developing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia and wished to enhance effective coordination between the two countries, legislatures and localities. 

Speaking highly of mutual support at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations, Ngan asked Russia to back Vietnam’s bid to run for a seat at the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021, and expressed her appreciation for joint actions between the two parliaments at international parliamentary forum, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union and other forums. 

She shared her view with her guest that two-way trade is growing robustly towards the targeted 10 billion USD by 2020. Both sides have worked effectively together in diverse areas, especially in energy and oil and gas. 

The Vietnamese leader thanked the Russian law-making body for adopting a memorandum of understanding on oil and gas cooperation to facilitate the operation of the joint venture between VietsovPetro and RusvietPetro. 

Both sides agreed that the regular exchange of delegations between the Vietnamese NA and the Federal Council of Russia will make it easier for furthering the bilateral ties. The two legislatures will create more favourable conditions to expand ties across energy, oil and gas, agriculture, industry and tourism while intensifying the supervision of cooperation agreement realization. 

Vietnam supports Russia’s active involvement in projects in the country, Ngan said, adding that she agreed with Matvienko’s proposal to review signed and adopted agreements and issue a document to effectively realise the FTA between Vietnam and the EEU. 

The two countries’ friendship parliamentary groups will be assigned to oversee the implementation of signed agreements. 

She proposed the Russian legislature back the signing of an agreement on food safety control between the two governments, making it easier for Vietnamese firms to export agro-fisheries products to Russia. 

The NA Chairwoman wished for increased bilateral collaboration across national defence-security, education-training, science-technology, culture-tourism and fields of Russia’s strength and Vietnam’s demand. 

On the occasion, she expressed thanks to and wished the Russian government would continue offering assistance to Vietnamese nationals in the host country.

Following the talks, host and guest met the press to inform the outcomes of their discussions. They confirmed their determination to unceasingly strengthen and step up the relations between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Federal Council of Russia.

In the morning the same day, Matvienko laid a wreath at a monument dedicated to heroic martyrs on Bac Son street and paid tribute to the late President Ho Chi Minh President at his mausoleum.

In the afternoon the same day, Ngan hosted a banquet in honour of the guest and her entourage.

VNA