In a recent interview granted to Vietnam News Agency, Ambassador Manh affirmedthat the visit aims to reinforce Vietnam’s foreign policy of attachingimportance to and promoting its comprehensive strategic partnership withRussia.
Hestressed that the visit is especially significant as relations between Vietnamand Russia have witnessed a fruitful andpractical development phase in terms of both Party and State channels, as wellas local cooperation and people-to-people exchange.
Vietnam considers Russia one of its most important andtrusted partners, Manh said.
Bilateralpolitical relations have been strengthened with high trust through the regularexchange of delegations and meetings at all levels – especially at seniorlevels and consultation mechanisms and strategic dialogue.
Thetwo sides also cooperated and supported each other in multilateral forums suchas the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC),the Asia-EuropeMeeting (ASEM), and ASEAN.
Economic,trade, and investment cooperation between the two countries continues todevelop dynamically. Two-way trade in 2017 reached 3.55 billion USD, and increasedby 42 percent year-on-year during the first half of 2018 .
Other cooperation areas – such as security and defence, education and training,and science and technology – have also been developing rapidly.
In recent times, collaboration between the two countries’ localities have recordedespecially effective progress, particularly in economic and trade ties,cultural and people-to-people exchange, and tourism development.
Accordingto the ambassador, Vietnam and Russia still have a lot of work to do to upgraderelations, especially as the two countries’ high-ranking leaders agreed on atarget to reach a bilateral trade turnover of 10 billion USD by 2020.
Inparallel with comprehensive and effective implementation of cooperation agreements,the ministries, departments, agencies, and enterprises of both nations shouldactively seek new and feasible methods to bolster cooperation, Manh stressed.
For example, one possibility is to look into the establishment of a jointventure to produce agricultural products for consumption in the Russian marketand the Commonwealth of Independent States,he said.
Healso underlined the need for the two sides to speed up the implementation ofcooperation projects in automobile and tractor assembling, health care, renewableenergy, as well as plant seeds, pesticide, and medicinal production.
Realityhas demonstrated that Russian consumers are very fond of Vietnamese products likefarm produce, coffee, tea, clothes, and footwear, but they have not gained afoothold in Russian supermarkets yet.
Inorder to remove this bottleneck, besides efforts made by authorised agencies totackle technical barriers, enthusiastic involvement from enterprises is neededto create a strong push in trade promotion.
Thediplomat said that in the forthcoming meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Committee for Economic-Commercialand Scientific-Technological Cooperation,he will point out all existing barriers facing Vietnamese enterprises and ask theRussian side to find suitable solutions.
Hesaid he hopes political credibility will continue to be strengthened, and that bilateralcooperation will be expanded and become more practical.
“I hope that the two countries will see through many successful collaboration projectsin the time to come, bringing about benefits for both sides,” he said. –VNA