Austria is the first destination of the Vietnamese State leader’s tour of Europe which also includes a State visit to Italy and a trip to the Holy See. This is also his first visit to Austria as the President of Vietnam.

Later the same day, President Thuong received Prof. Dr Alfred Gerstl, Chairman of the Austria - Vietnam Friendship Association, and other Austrian friends of Vietnam.

The leader congratulated the association, set up in 1973, on its recent successful congress and Gerstl on his election as its chairman. He also appreciated former Chairman Peter Jankovich’s contributions to Vietnam over half a century.

President Thuong highly valued the association’s coordination to organise many friendship exchanges to help strengthen mutual understanding and support between the two peoples.

Thanking Gerstl and other Austrian friends for their dedication to the bilateral ties, he expressed his belief that Gerstl will further contribute to the Vietnam-Austria relations and friendship.

For his part, Gerstl said Vietnam plays an important role in Austria’s foreign policy, especially in terms of trade and investment, noting that many Austrian businesses are operating in the Southeast Asian nation.

He voiced his delight at Vietnam’s attainments in economic development and also spoke highly of bilateral coordination and exchanges in culture and arts.

President Thuong affirmed that Vietnam always treasures and wishes to promote the friendship and multilfaceted cooperation with Austria, including via activities of the Austria - Vietnam and Vietnam - Austria friendship associations.

He said he believes in the next 50 years, the two sides will bring into play the achievements they have obtained to build up their friendship and cooperation.

Also on July 23 afternoon, President Thuong had a meeting with Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria Nguyen Trung Kien and other ambassadors of Vietnam to the countries bordering Austria, namely Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary, and Slovakia.

He praised efforts by the ambassadors and the Vietnamese embassies in the European countries to comprehensively and fruitfully carry out key diplomatic tasks, helping improve the homeland’s stature in the international community and reinforce Vietnam’s relations with the EU and European countries.

He asked them to further step up strategic forecasting and research while continually renewing their way of thinking to keep up with new trends and submit proposals to the Party and State. They were also told to maximise the synergy of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy; comprehensively carry out the tasks of politics, economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, foreign service information, and community affairs; and further intensify all-round partnerships with the countries.

Stressing that Vietnamese people in Europe form a large community, the President demanded the representative bodies of Vietnam to pay greater attention to and implement overseas Vietnamese-related tasks more extensively and proactively.

The same day, the State leader had a meeting with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Austria and the Union of Vietnamese People Associations in Europe, and visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Austria./. VNA