Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Moscow on May 12, beginning his four-day official visit to Russia at the invitation of host Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
At the airport, Dung was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrey Kovtun, and Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son, among others.
Dung and his entourage later laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to President Ho Chi Minh in the Russian capital, and met with the Vietnamese Embassy’s staff and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Russia .
At a gathering of representatives from the Vietnamese community in Russia, PM Dung praised INCENTRA Group’s huge investment in building the Hanoi-Moscow Centre for Culture and Trade Hotel, which will serve as a destination for Vietnamese community cultural and business activities in Russia.
Vietnamese ambassador to Russia, Pham Xuan Son, briefed Dung on the overseas Vietnamese (OV) living in the country and the children’s academic achievements, while thanking the Party and State for their attention to the OV community.
Do Xuan Hoang, member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Committee cum Chairman of the Vietnamese Association in Russia, also told the Government leader about the efforts and activities of Vietnamese nationals to encourage OV integration into their country of residence.
The Vietnamese State should pay more attention to Vietnamese investment in Russia and provide full and accurate information about OV activities to help people in the home country understand their contributions, Hoang said.
Mr. Dung affirmed that the Party and State have maintained a consistent policy regarding the Vietnamese community abroad as an indispensable part of the nation and called upon them to do as much as possible to contribute to the homeland as well as their resident country.
President of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Tran Bac Ha, and President of the INCENTRA Group, Nguyen Canh Son, briefed the PM on the construction of the centre project and assured him it would be completed on schedule.
On the occasion, INCENTRA and BIDV representatives also signed a cooperation agreement and a business contract with the Vietnamese Minton and Tue Linh groups in Russia.
The visit by the Head of the Vietnamese Government aims to confirm that Vietnam treasures and wishes to further strengthen its comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia, Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son said in an interview granted to Russia ’s e-newspaper Inforos.
In 2012, Vietnam and Russia upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership level, marking an important development in their bilateral ties.
Over the past time, many high-level delegations between the two countries were exchanged and existing cooperation mechanisms were implemented effectively, primarily the Inter-governmental Committee for Economic, Commercial and Scientific and Technological Cooperation, regular dialogues on diplomacy-national defence-security, as well as periodical political consultations between the Foreign Ministries.
The two countries have worked closely at international forums, especially at the United Nations and within the framework of regional forums such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and East Asia Summit (EAS).
Bilateral trade has been growing robustly, reaching nearly 2.45 billion USD in 2012, or a year-on-year increase of 23 percent. In the first three months of 2013, it hit 734 million USD.
By April 20, 2013, Russia ranked 18 th among 101 foreign investors in Vietnam with a combined registered capital of 2.07 billion USD pouring in 93 projects. Meanwhile, Vietnam has invested more than 1.7 billion USD in 16 projects in Russia.
Ambassador Son also noted that PM Dung’s visit also aims to realise the agreements reached during President Truong Tan Sang’s Russia visit in 2012.
During his visit, PM Dung and his counterpart Medvedev will discuss and sign a number of new agreements, aimed at promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership in all fields.
They will look at ways to raise two-way trade to 7 billion USD by 2015 and 10 billion USD by 2020 and intensify cooperation in nuclear energy.
They will discuss measures for Russian businesses to continue exploring and exploiting oil and gas in Vietnam’s continental shelf in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and establish a Vietnam-Russia University of Technology in Hanoi.
Son also emphasised the first round of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Hanoi in April, 2013 between Vietnam and the Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Once signed, the FTA will provide Vietnam with greater access and stronger cooperation in various fields in these countries while giving its partners opportunities to penetrate deeply into the potential Southeast Asian market.
The signing of the document, which is expected in late 2014, will be a historical event for the economic ties between Vietnam and the union in general and Russia in particular, according to the ambassador.
Source: VNA/VOV