President Tran Dai Quang held a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the central city of Da Nang on Friday on the sidelines of the APEC 2017 Economic Leaders’ Meeting. 

President Tran Dai Quang (right) and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC 2017 Economic Leaders’ Meeting. 

President Quang thanked the Russian President for attending the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders Week in Đà Nẵng, saying that his presence contributes to the success of the event. 

He recalled his impression at the warm welcome Russia provided for Việt Nam’s high-level delegation during its visit to the country in June 2017, and thanked the President, Government and people of Russia for their financial assistance to help Việt Nam overcome damage caused by typhoon Damrey. 

Viet Nam gives priorities to strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia, President Quang said, expressing his hope that the two sides will actively implement concrete measures to make the bilateral relations more stable, effective, benefiting the two nations’ people, and contributing to peace, cooperation, and development in the region and the world. 

He suggested Russia facilitate Vietnamese enterprises to invest in the Far East region in accordance with the potentials and demands of the two sides. 

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke highly of the active efforts Viet Nam made in hosting the APEC Year, affirming that Viet Nam is always one of the diplomatic priorities of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. 

He suggested Viet Nam create favourable conditions for Russian firms to join cooperation projects in infrastructure, railways, energy, fuel, automobile, and use of nuclear for peaceful purposes. 

President Putin called for improved cultural and people-to-people exchanges, including teaching and learning Russian language in Viet Nam. 

President Quang called on Russia to increase the sharing of information and experience, provide support for Vietnam in education-training and equipment to ensure cyber security, hi-tech crime prevention and control, as well as facilitating shipment of Vietnamese aquatic products to the Russian market. 

The two sides expressed their pleasure at delegation exchanges at all levels, particularly senior leaders, contributing to consolidating the mutual political trust. 

They agreed that the Viet Nam-Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA) has resulted in positive outcomes in trade exchanges between Viet Nam and Russia, Viet Nam and the Eurasia Economic Union, and pledged to continue working closely together to implement effectively the agreement. 

The two leaders also affirmed to continue strengthening cooperation in national defence-security, science-technology, education-training, culture, tourism, labour, and among localities. 

During the meeting, the two sides agreed on releasing a joint statement on cooperation in ensuring international information security. — VNS