Vietnam-Russia ties flourishing

During Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang’s official five-day visit to Russia last week, the two countries’ leaders gave the thumbs-up to the use of more trade liberalisation measures to cement bilateral cooperation in financial, banking, mining, engineering and energy sectors.

The leaders also agreed on negotiations and signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Customs Alliance (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan). They agreed to kick-start the FTA negotiations during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) summit to be held in Vladivostok, Russia, this September.

These measures were aimed to raise the bilateral trade turnover to $5 billion by 2015 and $10 billion by 2020.

During the Russian-Vietnam summit talks between Sang and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Putin pledged to ensure the progress of the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Vietnam as scheduled with the highest safety and quality.

The two leaders affirmed that they would continue intensifying their cooperation on oil and gas exploration and exploitation on Vietnam’s continental shelf and creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese-Russian joint ventures such as Vietsovpetro, Rusvietpetro, Gazpromviet and Vietgazprom to expand oil and gas exploration and exploitation, also to third countries.

Sang said Vietnam was ready to join Russia’s programme to boost socio-economic development in Eastern Siberia and the Far East and discuss with Russian partners about the possibility of establishing joint ventures manufacturing garments and textiles, footwear, wood products, seafood and electronics, which were Vietnam’s strength.

The two countries’ leaders underscored the need to expand the bilateral cooperation in national security and defence, science-technology, and education and training. They attached great importance to soon establishing the Vietnam-Russia Technology University in Hanoi and improving the efficiency of the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Scientific-Technological Research Centre.

Within the framework of Sang’s visit, Vietnam and Russia saw the signing of seven ministry-level cooperation deals about agriculture, customs, legislative assistance, science and technology, anti-smuggling, and culture, sports and tourism.

Sang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also exchanged views on fostering ties between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the United Russia Party led by Medvedev, including the exchange of high-level visits

Sang visited Vietnam-Russia RusVietPetro joint venture company’s third oil mine and attended the ceremony to receive the first industrial oil flow at Western Khosedai by RusVietPetro.

Medvedev confirmed that Russia supports energy cooperation projects with Vietnam and creates favourable conditions for the two countries’ joint venture companies to implement signed contracts and expand oil and gas exploration in Russia.

Sang welcomed Medvedev’s view and assured his host that the Vietnamese government supports Russian oil&gas companies in carrying out their energy projects in Vietnam.

Under a joint statement issued after the summit talk, the two sides held that territorial disputes and other disputes in the Asia-Pacific space should be solved only by peaceful measures without the use of force or the threat to use force, based on existing international law, particularly the UN Charter and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

They support the full implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and the approach to the building of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea at an early date.