Party chief grants interview to TASS ahead of official visit to Russia

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

In the interview, Mr. Trong highlighted that his official visit to Russia is organized on the context of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on fundamental principles of the Viet Nam-Russian Federation friendly relations and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Viet Nam-Russian Federation diplomatic ties.

He asserted that the visit will deepen the Viet Nam-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, strengthen strategic connections and enhance cooperation in all fields. 

The Vietnamese Party chief and Russian President V.Putin and other leaders will discuss the two nations’ relationship and measures and ways to boost the relations in all fields and international and regional issues of mutual concerns, he said. 

The Vietnamese leader expressed his hope that the visit will create a new force in Viet Nam-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and improve the quality and effectiveness in the bilateral relationship for the sake of their people and peace, stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Regarding the traditional relations between Viet Nam and Russia, Mr. Trong affirmed that Viet Nam attaches importance to and gives priority to promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia. 

High-ranking delegation exchanges through parties, authorities, parliaments and localities have been accelerated. The two sides have boosted cooperation in economics, trade, investment and security-defense. 

Viet Nam was the first nation signing the Eurasian Economic Union with four founding members-Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, which has come into effect since October 2016. 

The agreement has elevated the bilateral trade growth up around 30% over the recent two years, reaching US$3.5 billion in 2017, however, the figure is not matching with the political relations and the two sides’ potentials and prospects, Mr. Trong said, expecting to make trade ties as a pillar in the two nations’ relationship in the upcoming time. 

When asked about new tasks in energy cooperation between Viet Nam and Russia, Mr. Trong highly spoke of Russian corporations’ effective operation in Viet Nam such as Gazprom, Zarubezneft and Rosneft, adding that Viet Nam is encouraging, supporting and willing to facilitate Russian enterprises to pour more investment in Viet Nam. 

The Vietnamese Party leader stressed the need to use atomic energy for peaceful purpose, adding that the two nations agreed to build an Atomic Technology and Science Center in Viet Nam, which aims to boost researches, train more high-level officials, expand and step up the application of atomic energy to socio-economic and scientific-technological fields.

Regarding the defense-security cooperation and militarily technique between the two countries, Mr. Trong said that the cooperation in the fields has been expanded and consolidated over the recent years, manifesting high political trust between the two sides and in line with the Viet Nam-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. 

He highly appraised the two nations’ effective and positive cooperation in such area as training, United Nations peacekeeping activities, navy, military medicine, military technology and defense industry. 

The upcoming time, defense-security cooperation will continue playing a crucial role in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. 

By Thuy Dung