On January 30, 1950, the then Democratic Republic ofVietnam and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union)officially set up diplomatic relationship.
Forty-four years later on June 16, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam andthe Russian Federation signed an agreement on basic principles onbilateral friendship, forming a legal foundation for their relations inthe following years.
The countries inked a joint statement on lifting their ties to the strategic partnership on March 1, 2001.
On July 27, 2012, they issued another joint statement on enhancing their comprehensive strategic partnership.
Political relations between the nations have been continuallyconsolidated as evidenced by regular all-level delegations exchanged,notably the official Russia visits by Party General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong in November 2014, President Truong Tan Sang in July 2012, PrimeMinister Nguyen Tan Dung in May 2013, and National Assembly ChairmanNguyen Sinh Hung in March 2013.
Official tours toVietnam by Russian leaders include those by President Vladimir Putin inMarch 2001 and November 2006, and by Dmitry Medvedev serving as thePresident and Prime Minister in October 2010 and November 2012,respectively.
The countries established an annualstrategic dialogue on diplomacy-defence-security at the deputy foreignministerial level in 2008 and set up a strategic dialogue at the deputydefence ministerial level in 2013. They have also held regular politicalconsultations at the deputy foreign ministerial level.
Vietnam and Russia have shared viewpoints on a number of regional andinternational issues, closely coordinated and supported each other atinternational forums such as the United Nations, the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the ASEAN Regional Forum, and theASEAN-Russia framework.
Their economic cooperationhas strongly developed over the past years but still remains far behindpotential. Vietnam and Russia recognised each other’s market economy in2007.
Two-way trade reached 2.7 billion USD (3.97billion USD according to Russia’s data) in 2013 and 2.55 billion USD(3.74 billion USD according to Russia’s data) in the following year.
It faced continued downward trend in the first months of this yearwith 133 million USD worth of Vietnamese exports and 58 million USDworth of Russian shipments in the January – February period.
Vietnam mainly exports telephones, garments, agro-forestry-fisheryproducts to Russia while importing gasoline, steel, fertiliser,machinery, and equipment from the East European country.
On December 15, 2014, Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union thatgroups Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed a joint statement onbasically concluding the negotiation on a bilateral free tradeagreement. The agreement is expected to be officially signed in thefirst half of 2015.
Russia currently ranks 17 thamong 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 106projects worth nearly 2 billion USD, focusing on the mining, processing,and manufacturing industries.
Meanwhile, theSoutheast Asian country is now running 19 projects valued at 2.47billion USD in Russia, mainly in oil and gas and trade.
Energy is a traditional cooperation area greatly benefiting bothnations. Besides expanding cooperation in the joint venture Vietsovpetrountil 2030, the countries have set up other joint ventures, namelyRusvietpetro, Vietgazprom and Gazpromviet to continue oil and gascollaboration in Vietnam, Russia, and beyond.
Theyalso inked an inter-governmental cooperation agreement on building anuclear power plant in Vietnam on October 31, 2010.
In addition, cultural exchanges have been held regularly, contributingto promoting the two peoples’ mutual understanding and friendship.Russia is among the 10 countries having the most number of tourists toVietnam with 364,000 arrivals in 2014, increasing from 300,000 in 2013and 176,000 in 2012.
In the past, the Soviet Uniongave training for nearly 40,000 Vietnamese officials and experts. Russiapledged to provide more than 790 graduate and post-graduatescholarships for Vietnam in 2015, a surge from 600 in 2014.
About 5,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Russia and the twocountries have agreed to work towards the establishment of aVietnam-Russia university of technology in the ASEAN country.
Cooperation between their localities have also been fostered throughthe exchange of delegations and the signing of cooperation agreements,such as that between Vietnam’s Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and Russia’sMoscow and Saint Petersburg.
Since 1991, Vietnam andRussia have inked more than 100 cooperation documents in variousfields, ranging from economics, oil and gas, nuclear energy,education-training, to culture-science, and military technique.
Theupcoming Vietnam visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, meantto deepen bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, will reviewthe implementation of their prioritised tasks in 2014 along with seekingways to foster ties in all spheres in 2015.-VNA