Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev began his two-day official visit to Vietnam on November 18 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev

The visit takes place at a time when the two countries will celebrate the Vietnam Year in Russia and Russia Year in Vietnam during 2019-2020, the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on fundamental principles of Vietnam – Russia friendship in 2019 and the 70th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2020. 

It aims to continue stepping up bilateral ties across politics, economy-trade, national defence-security, science-technology, education-training, culture-tourism, and locality-to-locality exchange.

On March 1, 2001, Vietnam and Russia signed a joint statement on strategic partnership. Later on July 27, 2012, both sides issued a joint statement on further strengthening bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership. 

Over the past years, Vietnam – Russia political ties with high trust have been incessantly strengthened. The exchange of high-level visits has created a strong foundation to develop the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations. 

On economic-trade ties, the two nations maintained the operation of the Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic, Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation, which was established in 1992. The Vietnam – Russia Business Council was set up to facilitate bilateral trade and investment. The two countries recognised each other as market economies in 2007. 

Two-way trade rose from 2.2 billion USD in 2015 to 2.7 billion USD in 2016 and 3.55 billion USD in 2017. Vietnam mostly exports mobile phones, apparel, farm produce, and seafood to Russia while importing petroleum, iron and steel, fertiliser, machinery and equipment. 

Russia now ranks 23rd among countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 116 projects worth a total of 990 billion USD, mostly in oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, transportation, telecommunications, and aquaculture. 

Vietnam currently invests in 22 projects worth nearly 3 billion USD in Russia, predominantly in Rusvietpetro and Gazpromviet oil and gas ventures, Hanoi – Moscow cultural-trade centre, TH True Milk’s milch farming and agriculture, among others. 

On cultural exchange, Cultural Days in Vietnam and Russia are held annually and alternately. Russia remains among the top 10 sources of tourist arrivals in Vietnam. The number of Russian tourists soared from 176,000 in 2012 to 300,000 in 2013, 364,000 in 2014, 340,000 in 2015, 430,000 in 2016 and 570,000 in 2017. 

In the past, Russia offered training courses to nearly 40,000 Vietnamese officials and experts in diverse areas. In 2011, Russia provided 345 tertiary and post-tertiary scholarships for Vietnamese students, which rose to 400 in 2012 and 70 others for nuclear experts, 600 ones in 2014, 795 in 2015, 855 in 2016 and 953 in 2017. More than 5,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Russia.

Mutual visits promote Vietnam-Russia partnership: official

The comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia is expected to develop pragmatically in the time ahead thanks to the regular exchange of visits, especially those at the high level, thus meeting aspirations of the two countries’ leaders and people, said a Russian official. 

Vladimir Buianov, President of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association, made the evaluation in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of the official visit to Vietnam by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on November 18-19.

He said PM Medvedev’s upcoming visit will provide an important booster for the implementation of agreements reached during the visit to Russia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong last September. The visit is also a chance for the two countries to discuss new directions for their cooperation. 

Buianov expressed his hope that the two countries’ leaders will pay more attention to collaboration in culture and humanitarian work, which have great influence on the entire society, especially the youth. 

He noted that the Vietnam Year in Russia and the Russia Year in Vietnam will be held in 2019-2020, during which the two sides are scheduled to organise various activities to promote their land, history and people. 

According to him, Vietnam has affirmed itself as an equal, trustworthy partner with great potential of Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. 

Regarding the direction for bilateral ties in the time ahead, Buianov said the big goal for both countries now is to double their two-way trade to 10 billion USD by 2020. 

He noted that beside the stable and effective bilateral partnership in the traditional fields of energy and oil and gas, the two countries should expand their collaboration in other fields such as coal mining, railway and underground metro development. 

Buianov suggested the two sides select agreements and contracts more carefully, and roll out mechanisms to ensure their implementation in order to improve the efficiency of trade, investment and economic ties. 

The President of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association stressed that leaders of the two countries had voiced their belief that Russia can establish an equal and mutually beneficial relationship with Vietnam – a trustworthy partner.

VNA