PresidentTruong Tan Sang made the remarks in an interview granted to the RussianNews Agency Itar Tass on the threshold of President Putin’s third visitto Vietnam.
He said that Vietnam and the RussianFederation have enjoyed a long traditional friendship. TheVietnam-Russia Strategic Partnership was established in 2001 and thenupgraded into the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2012.
Thisfirm foundation has enabled bilateral relations between the twocountries to improve in both scope and scale. Political relations haveenjoyed a high level of confidence while bilateral economic cooperationhas been very effective. Humanitarian cooperation has also beenexpanded.
“To create a new breakthrough in the nearfuture, the two countries should focus on core areas, such as trade andenergy - including oil, gas and nuclear power,” the Vietnamese Presidentstressed, adding that military techniques should also be studied andspecial attention must be given to strategic projects.
Regardingtrade, he said that the two sides should exert further efforts tonegotiate and have an early signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)between Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus andKazakhstan . Although bilateral trade turnover keeps increasing (nearly2.5 billion USD in 2012 and 1.8 billion USD in the first eight monthsof this year), it remains at a modest level, accounting for a smallportion in the total import-export turnover of each nation.
TheFTA will serve as a breakthrough to help increase trade betweenVietnam and Russia to 7 billion USD by 2015 and a much higherfigure by 2020, he noted.
According to President Sang, inrecent years, the two countries have closely and effectively cooperatedon many big projects to look for new oil and gas fields in offshoreVietnam and in Russian territory. Besides the joint venture in oil andgas, Vietsovpetro, the two parties have expanded cooperation in a fewother joint ventures, such as Vietgazprom, Gazpromviet and Rusvietpetro.
Vietnam will continue to provide favourable conditionsto Russian oil and gas companies to expand gas exploration andexploitation on Vietnam 's continental shelf. The Ninh Thuan 1Nuclear Power Plant project is making good progress and the two sidesshould ensure it is carried out safely, efficiently and with the highestquality.
In the near future, Vietnam will continue tocomplete its legal foundation for nuclear development and wants Russiato help Vietnam train human resources with high skill in the field ofnuclear power, President Sang affirmed, adding that in the long run, thecountry wants to be able to master the technology, management andoperation of the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant.
He went onto say that military technical cooperation, a traditional activitybetween the two nations, is developing effectively. Both sides shouldcontinue to promote good relations and think of new forms of cooperationthat will contribute to tightening the strategic partnership.
Beingcomprehensive strategic partnership members, the two nations haveclosely cooperated in every field with a high level of confidence,especially their fine relationship in national defence and security, hesaid.
In the recent past, the two sides have effectivelyimplemented all agreements and contracts signed by their leaders. Inaddition, meetings and contacts at all levels, including meetingsbetween top leaders of the two countries have been organised. Theseinvolve a series of annual talks, including strategic dialogues onNational Defence and Security and multilateral cooperation at the ADMM+.Such meetings enabled leaders of both countries to timely discuss howto cooperate with each other on national defence, security and on peaceand cooperation in the region and the world.
Vietnamese-Russianmilitary technical cooperation is a traditional field. This cooperationhas constantly developed and been in line with international laws andpractice. In the near future, the countries should raise militarycooperation to a higher plane, as in joint-venture production, inresearch, in setting up service centres and after-sales service as wellas in exports to the third countries. In addition, they will continue toco-operate in military training, in scientific research as well as intechnology transfer.
In the context of fast changes in theregion and the world, the President stated that the two sides need tofurther tighten their cooperation in the field of national defence andsecurity so that they can contribute to economic development in eachcountry while strongly promoting the development of the Vietnam - Russiacomprehensive strategic partnership and actively contributing to peace,stability and sustainable development in Asia-Pacific and the world.
Regarding Russia-ASEAN ties, President Sang confirmed that ASEAN alwayswants to promote and expand relations with other partners, includingRussia , on the basis of friendship and equality in the interest ofpeace, stability and common prosperity. In reality, the ASEAN-Russianrelationship has developed well in security, politics, economics,culture and development cooperation.
Being a traditionalfriend of Russia , he reiterated that Vietnam highly regards Russia's role and supports its closer ties with the grouping. After becomingan official member of ASEAN in 1995, Vietnam backed Russia tobecome a full Dialogue Partnership member of ASEAN in July 1996. It wasthe first country to take the role as a coordinator of the ASEAN-RussiaDialogue in the period 1996-1999.
In 2010, in the capacityas Chairman of ASEAN, Vietnam successfully hosted the secondASEAN-Russia Summit. And at the fifth East Asia Summit, Vietnamactively supported Russia in joining the event. Vietnam iswilling to continue to act as a bridge for ASEAN-Russian cooperation inthe period 2005-2015.
President Putin's upcoming visit toVietnam has a special significance towards bilateral relations,President Sang said, adding that it will be the catalyst to promote theimplementation of the comprehensive strategic partnership that the twocountries have established.
The visit is an occasion forthe two State leaders to evaluate opportunities and look for measures tosolve any challenges. They will discuss and come to agreement on futureorientations to ensure our cooperation stays on the path to highefficiency and quality. They will also review the implementation ofagreements reached between Vietnamese and Russian senior officials aswell as the progress of major projects between the two countries.
PresidentSang said that during his meeting with his Russian counterpart, he willtalk about orientations and specific measures to lift cooperationbetween the two nations, including politics, economics, trade,investment, especially the oil and gas projects, the Ninh Thuan 1nuclear power plant, military technical cooperation, the strategiccooperation in the field of technology and education and many others.
“Wewill discuss international and regional issues of mutual concern, theexisting cooperation between Vietnam and Russia in the framework of UNmechanisms, the cooperation between the two nations in APEC or inorganisations that ASEAN plays a key role as in the ARF, East AsiaSummit, ASEM and others”, he said.
He expressed his beliefthat the visit will manifest the willingness and resolve of Vietnamand Russia to take the strategic partnership to a higher level.-VNA