Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep presents his credentials to French President Emmanuel Macron. (Photo: VNA)Paris (VNA) – French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Vietnam’sincreasing role in the region and the world while hosting a reception on August31 for Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep, who came to present his credentials.
Macron laid stress on the two countries’ similarities in benefits and stance inregional and global issues while expressing his hope to enhance Francophonecooperative ties with Vietnam.
He affirmed to pay a visit to Vietnam next year.
Ambassador Thiep, for his part, underlined that the France visit by GeneralSecretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trongin March 2018 opened a new period in the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.
Besides deepening the collaborative relations in the fields of economy-tradeand security-defence, and Francophone, the visit boosted bilateral cooperationin e-government, he added.
The diplomat said Vietnam persistently pursues its foreign policy ofindependence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification ofinternational relations, while wishing that the French President would continuesupport for Vietnam during the country’s integration and development process.
Vietnamand France established diplomatic ties on April 12, 1973, and lifted theirrelations to a strategic partnership in 2013.
France is now a leading partner of Vietnam in Europe, ranking third among theEuropean nations and 16th among the 114 countries and territories investing inVietnam. It tops the European donors in official development assistance forVietnam.
Investors from France have landed 500 projects valued at more than 2.8 billionUSD in Vietnam.
Bilateral trade between the two countries has seen positive growth, withVietnam having enjoyed continuous trade surplus since 2010.
In 2017, bilateral trade exceeded 4.6 billion USD, up 11.6 percent from theprevious year. The figure included 3.3 billion USD worth of Vietnamese exportsto France and 1.3 billion USD worth of imports from the European country, bothincreasing by over 11 percent year-on-year.
Vietnam’s key export staples to France were footwear, garments and textiles,household appliances, agro-forestry-aquatic products, gemstones, jewellery,electronics, mechanical tools, pottery, rubber, coal, plastic products, andrattan and bamboo handicrafts.
There are more than 300,000 Vietnamese living and working in France.-VNA
VNA
