The visit is made at the invitation of Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, announced by the NA’s Committee for External Relations.
Vietnam and Russia set up diplomatic ties on January 30, 1950 and since then, the two countries’ relations have been developing strongly with achievements recorded in all fields.
On March 1, 2001, Vietnam and Russia signed a joint statement on strategic partnership. Later on July 27, 2012, both sides issued a joint statement on further strengthening bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.
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Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin |
Over the past years, Vietnam – Russia political ties with high trust have been incessantly strengthened. The exchange of high-level visits has created a strong foundation to develop comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations.
On economic-trade ties, the two nations maintained the operation of the Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic, Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation which was established in 1992.
Two-way trade rose from USD 2.2 billion in 2015 to USD 2.7 billion in 2016 and USD 3.55 billion in 2017. Vietnam mostly exports mobile phones, apparel, farm produce, and seafood to Russia while importing petroleum, iron and steel, fertiliser, machinery and equipment.
Russia now ranks 23rd among countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 116 projects worth a total of USD 990 billion, mostly in oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, transportation, telecommunications, and aquaculture.
Vietnam currently invests in 22 projects worth nearly USD 3 billion in Russia, predominantly in Rusvietpetro and Gazpromviet oil and gas ventures, Hanoi – Moscow cultural-trade centre, TH True Milk’s milch farming and agriculture, among others.
On cultural exchange, Cultural Days in Vietnam and Russia are held annually and alternately. Russia remains among the top 10 sources of tourist arrivals in Vietnam. The number of Russian tourists soared from 176,000 in 2012 to 570,000 in 2017.
Source: VNA