Kyrgyz Prime Minister’s official visit to Vietnam after his appointment shows that Kyrgyzstan treasures its traditional friendship with Vietnam. It also highlights the role and position of Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific region.
Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan officially established diplomatic ties on June 4, 1992. However, in practice, the traditional friendship between the two countries has existed for a long time, inherited from the Soviet Union era, and continues to develop well today.
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Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (right) welcomes Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasimalyev at Noi Bai International Airport. (Photo: VNA) |
In terms of politics-diplomacy, although the two countries do not yet have representative offices in each other's territories and the exchange activities of delegations have been modest, the foundation of their traditional friendship has enabled them to closely coordinate with and support each other in international organizations and multilateral forums.
Kyrgyzstan was one of the first countries in Central Asia to support Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization and its election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the terms 2008-2009 and 2020-2021. The country also supported Vietnam's bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term and the Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union for the 2022-2025 term. Vietnam supported Kyrgyzstan’s candidacy for the United Nations Economic and Social Council for the 2013-2015 term.
In terms of economy and trade, Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (of which Kyrgyzstan is a member, along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Belarus) signed a free trade agreement in 2015.
In the 2017-2021 period, trade exchange between Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan was only 1.36 million USD per year. However, recently, bilateral trade has seen significant growth, with a 70.9% increase in 2022 and a 66.7% increase (reaching 7.5 million USD) in 2023.
In 2024, bilateral trade reached 21.5 million USD, marking a 172% increase compared to the previous year, of which, Vietnam's exports to Kyrgyzstan were valued at 10.8 million USD, while imports from Kyrgyzstan amounted to 10.7 million USD. Vietnam mainly exports pepper, tea, cashew nuts, computers, electronic products, and components, etc. to Kyrgyzstan, while importing machinery, equipment, spare parts, tobacco products, and silk from Kyrgyzstan.
As of October 2024, Kyrgyzstan has an investment project in Khanh Hoa province in industrial alcohol production, alcoholic beverages, and other drinks, with a total registered capital of 5 million USD, ranking 83rd out of 148 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Actual data shows that there is much potential and ample room for cooperation between the two sides.
Vietnam’s reception of Prime Minister Adylbek Kasimalyev’s official visit to demonstrate the country’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, diversification; proactive and active international integration in a comprehensive, deep and effective manner.
The visit also contributes to affirming Vietnam’s consistent policy of valuing and desiring to strengthen relations with traditional friends, including Kyrgyzstan; showing Vietnam’s determination to deepen and make bilateral relations more effective, promoting cooperation in politics-diplomacy, economy-trade-investment, expanding cooperation in other potential fields such as transportation, agriculture, culture, education, tourism, local cooperation and people-to-people exchange, towards elevating bilateral relations at an appropriate time, in accordance with the new situation.
We can believe that Prime Minister Adylbek Kasimalyev’s visit would be a great success, creating momentum for the two sides to further deepen traditional friendship, thereby promoting the strong development of Vietnam-Kyrgyzstan bilateral cooperation in priority areas with great potential.
Translated by Quynh Oanh