The host said his country attaches importance to the trip by the NA Chairwoman, during which the two officials co-chaired the first meeting of the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee between the Vietnamese NA and the State Duma of Russia.

Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin (R) welcomes National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on December 11.

With this new cooperation mechanism, the two parliaments will further enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership between their countries, according to him.

Vietnam always treasures and is determined to strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia in an increasingly substantive manner so as to meet the two peoples’ interests, she affirmed.

The country always views parliamentary cooperation as an important field in the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership, she said, adding that it highly valued the State Duma Chairman’s initiative to set up the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee, which is the highest parliamentary cooperation mechanism of the Vietnamese NA at present.

The top legislator of Vietnam also applauded the mutual support and close coordination between the countries’ parliamentary bodies in the international arena, as well as their active participation in multilateral forums they have organised.

As Chair of the 41st General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), the Vietnamese NA will continue to promote the strategic partnership between ASEAN and Russia, thus helping to raise Russia’s standing in the region for peace, stability and development in the world, she said.

According to the chairwoman, bilateral economic, trade and investment ties have enjoyed progress since the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Russia is a member, took effect in October 2016. Their trade reached 4.5 billion USD in 2018, up 30 percent from 2017, and 3.4 billion USD in the first nine months of 2019.

Meanwhile, partnerships in energy, oil and gas remain an important pillar in economic links, she said, noting that during the visit, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue held talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Kozak to discuss cooperation in this domain and seek ways to tackle difficulties facing each project.

She thanked Russia for increasing its scholarship for Vietnamese students to 1,000 each year, said she hopes the two legislatures will facilitate the issuance of visas for Vietnamese citizens to Russia provide legal support to the signing, ratifying and implementing the inter-governmental agreement on the sending of Vietnamese to work in Russia.

During the talks, Ngan informed her host of the socio-economic situation in Vietnam, stressing that Vietnam will continue to persistently implement its foreign policy of independence, self-mastery, cooperation and development.

For his part, the Russian leader held that the two countries are quite able to achieve the goal of bilateral trade of 10 billion USD in the time to come. The utilisation of the Vietnam – Russia inter-parliamentary cooperation committee should be made to assess the outcome of the recent cooperation, he said.

Vietnam, Romania tighten bilateral cooperation

The Vietnam-Romania Friendship Association under the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) held a get-together in Hanoi on November 30 by to mark the 101st Great Union Day of Romania (December 1).

PM’s RoK trip expected to further enhance bilateral relations

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse will attend the ASEAN-Republic of Korea (RoK) Commemorative Summit and the first Mekong-RoK Summit, and pay an official visit to the RoK from November 24-28.

Vietnam, Oman enhance bilateral cooperation

Vietnam and Oman have agreed to increase the exchange of delegations, especially high-level ones, and encourage both sides’ enterprises to take part in fairs and exhibitions of each country to seek cooperation opportunities.

Vice President holds bilateral meetings on CICA sidelines

Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh met with a number of State and Government leaders on the sidelines of the 5th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Tajikistan from June 14-15. 

Italian PM’s Vietnam visit hoped to bolster bilateral partnership

The upcoming official visit to Vietnam by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte from June 5-6 is expected to foster the Vietnam-Italy strategic partnership in various fields, ranging from politics, diplomacy, defence-security to economics, trade, investment, education and culture.

Source: VNA