Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (R) and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met on the sidelines of ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in January (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming visit to Vietnam from April 19-20 byMyanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to strengthen bilateral tiesand tighten the Vietnam-Myanmar comprehensive cooperative partnership.
This is the first official visit to Vietnamby Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also Myanmar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs andMinister of the President’s Office.
The visit, made at the invitation ofVietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, takes place in a context ofincreased political trust and cooperation between the two nations.
Vietnam and Myanmar set up diplomatic tieson May 28, 1975. However, the bilateral relationship was formed earlier. In1947, when fighting French colonialists, Vietnam opened an information agencyin Myanmar’s Yangon, which was elevated to a Governmental representative officein 1948. Myanmar’s Prime Minister U Nu visited Vietnam in 1954, whileVietnamese President Ho Chi Minh visited Myanmar in 1958.
Despite its own difficulties, Myanmarwhole-heartedly supported Vietnam during the struggle for national independenceand reunification
The two countries elevated their ties to acomprehensive cooperative partnership during a State visit to Myanmar byGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong in August2017.
They have supported each other atsub-regional, regional and international forums such as the United Nations,ASEAN, Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam cooperation, Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-MekongEconomic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) and the Greater Mekong Sub-region.
Economic, trade and investment ties havebeen maintained in agriculture, fisheries, finance-banking, aviation,telecommunications, oil and gas exploration and exploitation, mining, powerdevice production and automobile manufacturing and assembly.
Bilateral trade hit 828.3 million USD in2017, up 51 percent from 2016. Vietnam is the 7th biggest foreign investor inMyanmar with 70 projects worth nearly 2 billion USD.
During the visit to Myanmar by Party GeneralSecretary Nguyen Phu Trong in August 2017, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industryand Trade and Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce signed a memorandum ofunderstanding on trade cooperation.
The two countries have regularly heldmeetings of the joint committee on bilateral cooperation and the jointsub-committee on trade. Trade fairs have also been held in each country tointroduce products and attract investors.
In addition, bilateral security and defencerelations have been tightened. Based on a defence cooperation agreement signedin 2011, the two armies have sped up all-level delegation exchanges and boostedcooperation in border management, and illegal migration and smugglingprevention.-VNA
VNA
