Category: Politics

Bucharest: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received representatives from the Romania – Vietnam Friendship Association and friendship organisations with Vietnam in Bucharest on January 21 (local time) as part of his official to the European country.

The PM expressed his joy to meet with representatives of Romanian friendship associations and friends who have made contributions to fostering solidarity, friendship and understanding between the two countries, during his official visit to Romania.

According to the PM, over the past nearly 75 years, generations of Vietnamese and Romanian people have continuously built and nurtured a good traditional friendship, based on mutual understanding and trust, as well as support for mutual development. Vietnam always remembers Romania’s sentiments and valuable support for Vietnam in the past struggle for national independence and reunification as well as in the present national construction and development.

He said his official visit aims to strengthen multifaceted cooper
ation between Vietnam and Romania, tighten traditional friendship between the two nations, promote achievements in bilateral ties over the past nearly 75 years, while creating new momentum for the bilateral relations.

During his stay in Romania, he will have talks with the Romanian Prime Minister, and meet with leaders of Romania to discuss measures to boost the Vietnam – Romania relations. He wished Romanian friends to continue to inspire all Romanians to promote relations between the two countries, contributing to the two countries’ sustainable development goals.

In recent times, Romanian friendship associations and organisations have actively coordinated with the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community to organise many meaningful events marking major holidays of Vietnam and Romania, and important foreign affairs activities as well as cultural and art programmes, exhibitions and seminars.

At the event, the participants expressed their deep sentiments to Vietnam, and belief in the Southeast Asian
country’s strong development./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prahova : Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his spouse, and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam visited Prahova county on January 21 as part of his official visit to Romania.

Introducing the county’s economic potential and opportunities of cooperation with Vietnam, officials of the Romanian Government, Prahova, and the county’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Prahova, a leading industrial, oil and gas, tourism, and cultural hub of Romania, established the twin relationship with Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province in 2019. It is home to the first oil refinery of Romania and the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, which has long-standing cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation and has considerably contributed to bilateral oil and gas partnerships.

Romanian officials said Vietnam has posted fast growth for years, signed many free trade agreements, and made good use of chances generated by global economic and political changes.

Perceiving that Vietnam will be the next ‘tiger’ of Asia, they called on busin
esses of Romania and Prahova to grasp opportunities of investment cooperation with the Southeast Asian country. In return, Romania can act as a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter the European market with a combined population of 500 million.

PM Chinh appreciated Romania’s assistance and support for Vietnam, saying he is impressed with Prahova’s development, particularly in IT application, digital transformation, public service management, and social security ensuring.

He emphasised achievements in the cooperation in manpower training for the oil and gas industry, a young sector but also a substantial contributor to Vietnam’s development over the nearly 40 years of reforms.

There remains huge potential for locality-to-locality cooperation, which has an important role to play in the two countries’ relations, he noted, adding that some localities of Vietnam and Romania are set to sign cooperation memoranda during his visit.

Vietnam is ready to strengthen ties with Romania, including Prahova, renew old coo
peration impetuses, and promote new ones, especially in emerging areas and big trends of the world that both sides have demand for such as digital economy, green economy, circular economy, and sharing economy, the PM stated.

He pointed out that the two economies boast many complementary advantages, noting as Vietnam has a population of about 100 million while Romania about 23 million, labour could be a new cooperation impulse. Besides, Vietnam will continue investing in and expanding major oil and gas projects, so the two sides can foster partnerships in investment, technology transfer, and manpower training.

Vietnam and Romania have big opportunities and wishes for cooperation. The largest obstacle to their ties now is geographical distance, but it could be addressed by stepping up digital transformation and e-commerce and increasing authorities’ assistance for businesses, according to the leader.

During the trip, PM Chinh is scheduled to have meetings with top leaders of Romania to identify orientations
and measures for augmenting bilateral ties in different fields, including economy, trade, and investment.

He voiced his hope that the two countries’ businesses and localities will cooperate with each other to help realise the common vision and targets, pledging the best possible conditions for their exchanges, partnerships, and cooperation./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Kampala: Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan had meetings with President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, and First Vice President of Iran Mohammad Mokhber in Kampala on January 20.

The events took place on the sidelines of the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the capital city of Uganda.

At their meeting, the Ugandan and Vietnamese leaders discussed concrete directions for developing the two countries’ cooperation in all fields in a result-oriented manner.

In terms of politics – diplomacy, they affirmed the importance of increasing delegation exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and political trust and create momentum for economic ties. They agreed to maintain close coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the UN and NAM, as well as important organisations in the two regions such as the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Xuan called on Uganda to support ASEAN’s common stance on the peac
eful settlement of disputes in the East Sea with respect for international law.

Regarding economic cooperation, the two sides agreed to actively implement the outcomes of President Museveni’s visit to Vietnam, increase the exchange of business delegations, work together to hold investment and trade promotion events, and improve agricultural cooperation effectiveness.

Museveni highly valued Vietnam’s information technology capacity, asking the Southeast Asian nation to assist his country in digital transformation and training of high-quality manpower in technology, automation, and artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, Xuan asked Uganda to create conditions for major telecoms businesses of Vietnam like Viettel to seek investment opportunities.

The two leaders agreed to step up the negotiations on and signing of important bilateral cooperation documents, including an agreement on investment facilitation and protection and another on double-taxation avoidance, thereby completing the legal framework for fosterin
g bilateral economic cooperation.

As part of the Vietnamese Vice President’s activities in Uganda, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation

Talking to the UN Secretary-General, Xuan highly valued Guterres’s significant contributions to global peace, security, and development amid numerous challenges. She underlined Vietnam’s consistent and strong support for multilateralism and the global governance system with the UN at the centre, along with the country’s support for the Secretary-General’s efforts and initiatives for peace, reconciliation, and enhancement of strategic trust among countries.

She stated that Vietnam are determined to actively and responsibly contribute to the UN’s common works, including the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and the target of net zero emissions by 2050.

During this process, Vietnam hopes to continue receiving the UN’s effective cooperat
ion and assistance, particularly in terms of access to finance and technology and human resources training, the Vice President noted, calling on the Secretary-General to create favourable conditions for developing countries to bring into play their role and voice in the settlement of global issues.

For his part, Guterres considered Vietnam as a model of a war-torn country now emerging as a pillar in the promotion of global peace.

He stressed that the UN is ready to develop multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, and hopes the country will continue making effective contributions to major processes of the UN in the coming time, including the Summit of the Future 2024, to work towards a world of peace, sustainable development, and better equality.

Both leaders also shared common opinions about the role of multilateralism, the demand for reforming international financial institutions, and the enhancement of the ASEAN – UN cooperation for peace and stability in Southeast Asia, including the East Sea.

At another
meeting, Vice President Xuan and First Vice President of Iran Mokhber applauded the progress in their countries’ relations and agreed on the need to foster the coordination of stances at multilateral forums for the sake of peace, stability, and sustainable development in their respective regions and the world.

Xuan noted Vietnam always treasures the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Iran, one of its important partners in the Middle East, and that the two sides should keep close coordination to implement the agreements reached during the official visit to Iran by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue in August 2023.

She asked relevant ministries and sectors of the two countries to continue reviewing and updating cooperation mechanisms, and soon organise the 10th meeting of the Vietnam – Iran Inter-governmental Committee to remove bottlenecks and facilitate economic, investment, and trade links.

Mokhber said his country always views Vietnam as an important partner in Southeast Asia. He agreed
with Xuan about the promotion of economic and trade ties on par with the countries’ potential, and the expansion of partnerships in other fields of common interest like science – technology, education – training, people-to-people exchanges, and locality-to-locality connections.

The First Vice President also voiced his hope for a visit to Vietnam in the near future to help intensify bilateral relations.

On this occasion, the two sides touched upon some international and regional issues of shared concern, including the Middle East situation and the East Sea issue./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Berlin: Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu Quang Minh has highlighted the growing relationship between Vietnam and Germany during an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of the state visit to the Southeast Asian nation by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his spouse from January 23-24.

The strategic partnership between Vietnam and Germany has developed substantively across multiple fields in recent times, especially after Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s official visit to Vietnam in November 2022, Ambassador Minh said.

Political trust has been enhanced through meetings at all levels, he said.

2023 alone saw more than 40 working trips to Germany undertaken by deputy ministers, and deputy heads of people’s committees of Vietnamese localities.

Meanwhile, many heads of German states and business leaders paid visits to Vietnam in 2022 and 2023. Most recently, the Minister-Presidents of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) and Thuringia visited Vietnam, with a record number of up to 50-70 businesses taki
ng part in each.

Frameworks implementing economic diplomacy have been strengthened and expanded. Despite economic difficulties, Germany agreed to grant 61 million EUR in non-refundable aid to Vietnam for the 2024-2025 period. The two sides held the second session of the Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation. Many Vietnamese businesses resumed promotion activities and attended trade fairs in Germany. Both sides worked to ease difficulties to promote the implementation of Germany’s ‘lighthouse’ projects in Vietnam.

Germany is Vietnam’s largest trading partner in the European Union (EU), while Vietnam is Germany’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia.

Bilateral trade hit more than 11 billion USD last year (according to data unveiled by Vietnam) and 17.12 billion USD as of November 2023 (according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany – Destatis).

As of the end of 2023, there had been 464 valid projects invested by Germany in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 2.74 billion USD. Vietnam
invested 283.3 million USD in 37 projects in Germany.

Minh highlighted that important gains have been recorded in bilateral cooperation in other fields such as green development, energy transition and climate change response. Germany has continued to provide support for Vietnam to implement its commitments within the framework of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and businesses of the two countries have proactively seized cooperation opportunities in this field.

Besides, many important resulted have been recorded in cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges, through a series of activities held in both countries’ localities, helping to popularise cultures and promote mutual understanding.

It’s noteworthy that the Federation of Vietnamese Associations in Germany was established at a congress held in Berlin late last year. The federation is expected to connect and unite all individuals, organisations and associations of Vietnamese people, acting as a bridge to further promote the friendsh
ip between the two peoples.

Ambassador Minh said the coming visit to Vietnam by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is of great significance as it is his first overseas trip in 2024 and is also the first exchange of high-level delegations between the two countries in 2024 – a pivotal year towards the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties in 2025.

Notably, he visited Vietnam in October 2016 in his capacity as Vice Chancellor of Germany, and in March 2008 when he was Foreign Minister of Germany. Visiting Vietnam this time, he will have the chance to inspect German invested lighthouse projects signed during his 2008 visit.

During his stay in Vietnam, President Steinmeier is scheduled to meet with senior Vietnamese leaders to discuss measures to further promote Vietnam – Germany cooperation in multiple fields as well as to exchange views on regional and international issues of shared concern.

High on the agenda will be economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and Germany. President Steinmeier wil
l be accompanied by a group of large German businesses operating in various industries.

According to Ambassador Minh, Vietnam has become a leading attractive destination for German businesses. Renewable energy, green transition and sustainable development, manufacturing industry, services, logistics, and education are priority areas of cooperation of both sides. A seminar is expected to take place between businesses accompanying the President and German businesses plus German business organisations operating in Vietnam.

An area of both sides’ interest is cooperation in vocational training and bringing Vietnamese skilled workers to work in Germany amidst serious labour shortages in the European country. A Letter of Intent on labour cooperation is expected to be signed on the occasion, Minh said./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Berlin: The Vietnamese community in Germany are delighted at the coming state visit to Vietnam by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thinh, head of the research group at TU Dortmund University and Standing Vice Chairman of the federation of Vietnamese people associations in the European nation.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of a state visit on January 23 – 24, Thinh considered the trip as an important milestone in bilateral relations, a demonstration of continuous successes of Vietnam’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ and stature in the international arena, and also an affirmation by the German Government that Vietnam is a strategic partner with a new standing.

He noted that the Vietnamese and Vietnamese-origin community in Germany hope the enterprises accompanying President Steinmeier during the visit will sign many cooperation deals on diplomacy, politics, science – technology, economy, culture, and tourism with the Vietnamese side.

The community are glad about the visit as they
also consider this a good sign for them to implement more activities to contribute to the homeland.

Thinh expressed his hope that the two countries’ cooperation potential will be better tapped into to develop their strategic cooperation more intensively and extensively, thereby contributing to both sides’ prosperous development.

Mentioning scientific and technological cooperation, he said Vietnam is an important partner of many German ministries and sectors. Over the past years, the European country has carried out many programmes to assist Vietnam in many areas such as the International Climate Initiative, the Export Initiative Environmental Protection, climate protection, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the realisation of the net-zero emissions target by 2050.

Germany is strong at scientific research serving green growth, green technology development, climate protection, and climate change adaptation, which are also the fields Vietnam have had many cooperation project
s on with and received financial aid from Germany.

The two sides have also worked together in machinery engineering, health care, Industry 4.0 technology, innovation, startup, human resources training, and exchange of high-quality manpower, Thinh said, noting that these fields boast huge potential needing to be further capitalised on via bilateral connections at all levels, from central to local ones.

With regard to the innovation network he currently chairs, Thinh said the network, established in September 2019, has held frequent activities to connect Vietnamese and Vietnamese-origin intellectuals, experts, scientists, undergraduates, and post-graduates in Germany with those in the homeland and the world. It has also organised workshops to help promote the competitiveness and stature of Vietnamese intellectuals in Germany, and built projects on technology transfer, scientific – technological cooperation, and sci-tech application in the Southeast Asian country.

In the coming time, it will boost support for
the Vietnam National Innovation Centre in terms of innovation and modern technology development, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Berlin: Former German Ambassador to Vietnam Rolf Schulze has said that the coming state visit to Vietnam by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his spouse is a testament to the close bilateral relations and friendship between the two countries.

In an interview to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of the visit, Schulze, who is now President of the Germany-Vietnam Association, said the visit takes place just more than a year after the successful trip to Vietnam by Prime Minister Olaf Scholz.

Germany considers Vietnam one of its important partners in Asia. Both countries attach importance to a rules-based international order in a multipolar world governed by the principles of the United Nations Charter. For both countries, respect for territorial integrity and peaceful settlement of conflicts are of great importance, the former ambassador said.

Regarding achievements in Germany’s foreign policy towards Vietnam over the years, Schulze expressed his impression of bilateral initiatives, describing the estab
lishment of their strategic partnership in 2011 as the most prominence in the bilateral ties. This has served as a “roadmap” for the cooperation process between the two countries.

Another major achievement is the establishment of the Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in 2008, which has opened up “new horizons” for academic exchange between the two countries. Besides, students graduating from the Germany International School in Ho Chi Minh City (IGS) can go through universities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and many other countries around the world.

In addition, he highlighted the “German House” (Deutsches House) in Ho Chi Minh City – a modern, energy-saving building. It is also the headquarters of the German Consulate General, becoming a leading destination for German companies when seeking investment business opportunities in Vietnam.

He added that another important foundation in the relations between the two countries is the cooperation in implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and
the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

Germany supports Vietnam’s green growth strategy, and it has contributed to the political declaration establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to open up financial resources to assist Vietnam’s just and sustainable energy transition.

Last but not least, he said, the economic relationship between the two countries is a successful story. Schulze affirmed that in the European Union (EU), Germany has been so far the most important partner of Vietnam, and Vietnam is Germany’s largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to the former diplomat, at the bilateral level, vocational training will bring many opportunities for the two countries’ cooperation in the future. At the international level, both countries need to further strengthen cooperation in United Nations organisations./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency