Prime Minister's working trip to Europe: Strategic implications in the new era

On the afternoon of January 23, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his wife Le Thi Bich Tran and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation arrived in Hanoi, successfully concluding their official visits to Poland and the Czech Republic, attending the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland and working bilaterally in Switzerland from January 15 to 23 at the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala, and Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab.

The working trip demonstrates the growing role, position and international prestige of Vietnam - a reliable, dynamic, creative, responsible and potential partner, a nation with strong determination to develop, ready to enter the era of national growth and the era of human intelligence.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's activities in Davos also sent important messages to the international community about sincerity, cooperation, international solidarity, the role of multilateralism, humanity and responsibility of countries and businesses in promoting sustainable, inclusive development and transformation to adapt to the smart era.

Bringing relations with 3 countries to new heights

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to Poland and the Czech Republic is the first delegation exchange by a head of government in the past 18 years with Poland and the past 6 years with the Czech Republic.

The visit takes place in the context that Vietnam and Poland, the Czech Republic will celebrate the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations in early February 2025, Vietnam - Switzerland aim to celebrate the 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations in 2026; Poland has just assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union from January 1, 2025.

With more than 30 activities, the visit achieved outstanding results, bringing the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland to a new stage of development - a stage of closer and more effective ties.

All three countries gave the Prime Minister, his wife and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam a warm, friendly and sincere welcome from close friends. During the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam will never forget the selfless, pure and sincere help that traditional friends have given to Vietnam and that although the world may change and the geographical distance may be far, the core values ​​and sincere feelings between Vietnam and traditional friends Czech and Poland will not only remain unchanged but will also develop more deeply, comprehensively and effectively.

For their part, the leaders of the three countries expressed their admiration for the country and people of Vietnam, their strong impression of its socio-economic development achievements, and their appreciation of Vietnam's growing international position. The Czech Republic and Poland consider Vietnam their most important partner in Asia. The Czech leaders affirmed that Vietnam always holds a special position for the Czech Republic, and that there is no country in Asia with which the Czech Republic has such a deep and broad relationship as Vietnam.

The visit has elevated relations and strengthened political trust with the countries. Vietnam and Poland issued a joint statement towards upgrading relations to a Strategic Partnership; and the Czech Republic issued a joint statement on upgrading relations between the two countries to a Strategic Partnership and issued a statement on upgrading relations to a Comprehensive Partnership with Switzerland. These are breakthrough steps, further deepening relations between Vietnam and the three countries. In particular, the Czech Republic became the first Central Eastern European country in the EU to be a Strategic Partner with Vietnam and Vietnam became the first Southeast Asian country to be a Strategic Partner of the Czech Republic.

The countries agreed to increase delegation exchanges and contacts at all levels and channels, especially at high levels, and people-to-people exchanges to enhance mutual understanding, laying the foundation for expanding cooperation in other fields.

The visit creates new momentum for cooperation in traditional areas such as trade, investment, tourism, education - training, defense - security, culture, tourism, labor... in line with the new partnership framework, expanding cooperation to new areas where the parties have potential and need for cooperation such as digital transformation, green transformation, information and communication technology, cyber security, pharmaceuticals, automotive industry, UAV, aviation and railway connectivity...

One of the highlights of the visit was the agreement of the parties to strive to soon increase trade turnover to a higher level, in which Vietnam, Poland and the Czech Republic agreed to further open their markets to each other's agricultural, aquatic and food products within the framework of the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA); agreed to soon ratify the EU - Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). Vietnam and related partners, such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein, also agreed to speed up negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Vietnam and the three countries have signed eight cooperation agreements on diplomacy, labor, aviation, education, sports, and culture. In addition, in order to boost tourism cooperation and people-to-people exchange, Vietnam has decided to exempt visas for citizens of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. This decision has been highly appreciated by leaders and public opinion of the neighboring countries.

Vietnam's message about the smart era

This is the fourth time Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has attended the WEF Conferences, but his attendance at the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos with the theme "Cooperation in the Smart Age" this time has special significance, in the context that the Politburo has just issued Resolution No. 57 on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation.

During more than 30 hours in Davos, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a busy schedule with many multilateral and bilateral activities, successful in many aspects, achieving high levels of set goals, and conveying many important messages to international friends.

Taking advantage of the conference being the focal point of prestigious multinational corporations with global influence, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of many ministries, sectors and localities spoke and had dialogues with many leading corporations at 5 seminars on many key areas, related to Vietnam's interests and development orientations, from high technology, artificial intelligence to pharmaceuticals, smart infrastructure, green energy and financial centers.

The Prime Minister and members of the delegation also took full advantage of the short time in Davos to have dozens of meetings with leaders of partners, promote trade and investment cooperation with other countries and strengthen cooperation with international organizations in areas such as trade, health, intellectual property, agriculture, renewable energy, etc.

Analyzing major trends, the Prime Minister assessed that today's world is becoming politically polarized, diversifying markets, products, supply chains, greening production, business and services, and digitizing all human activities. The world is also facing issues such as climate change, population aging, resource depletion, etc. These are issues that countries must promote multilateralism and cooperation of a national, comprehensive, and global nature to solve.

To take advantage of opportunities and overcome challenges in the smart era, the Prime Minister said that this era must be grasped comprehensively from four different aspects: from the geopolitical and security aspects, it is peace and cooperation; from the economic aspect, it is rapid and sustainable development; from the environmental aspect, it is sustainable exploitation and use; from the social aspect, it is progress, social justice, leaving no one behind. The smart era must be an era of development for people, serving people, taking people as the center, promoting cooperative initiatives for people in the new era.

The Prime Minister's speeches and discussions left a deep impression on Vietnam's aspirations, vision and determination to develop in the smart era, with "three readinesses" including institutional readiness, resource readiness, especially quality human resources, and infrastructure readiness. Vietnam must prepare resources for the new era with an approach to resources originating from thinking, vision, motivation originating from innovation and creativity, and strength originating from people and businesses.

The business community and international partners highly appreciated Vietnam's socio-economic management results, affirmed their readiness to support, expand cooperation and invest in Vietnam's priority areas, and wished to accompany Vietnam in realizing strategic development goals, especially Resolution 57 on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation. Enterprises are particularly interested and committed to accompanying Vietnam in developing financial centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

Great expectations for the Vietnamese model

At this WEF Conference, the Prime Minister attended and spoke at 4 discussion sessions of the Conference, including 3 sessions designed specifically for Vietnam by WEF.

A special dialogue session with WEF with the theme "Breakthrough to the Future: Vietnam's vision for innovation and global role" was exclusively for the Prime Minister to share the story of Vietnam's aspirations, visions, lessons and strategic development orientations as well as suggestions for promoting international cooperation in the smart era. This is one of the activities reserved for the very few leaders that WEF assessed as inspiring, inspiring and influential among the more than 50 presidents/prime ministers attending the Conference.

This special policy dialogue session conveyed a strong message about Vietnam as an attractive strategic choice for foreign investors in the context of major country competition, thanks to its economic development achievements over 40 years of innovation, its will and determination along with breakthrough development policies to seize opportunities in the smart era so that science and technology, innovation and digital transformation become resources to help the Vietnamese economy achieve its goal of becoming a developed, high-income economy by 2045.

Here, the Prime Minister frankly shared his views on many important issues of interest to delegates such as balancing relations with both the United States and China, Vietnam's trade surplus with the United States, challenges to Vietnam from climate change and ensuring the dual goals of economic development and environmental protection, Vietnam's preparation for the smart era... The head of the Government affirmed that he is not afraid to do anything if it brings benefits to the country, the people, and the people.

The host shared the business community's appreciation for the Vietnamese Government's commitment to national development and interests and said that with the goal of double-digit growth in the coming time, Vietnam will become a model of development in the world.

Meanwhile, the National Strategic Dialogue focused on discussing Vietnam's policies, investment and cooperation priorities to unleash growth potential, promote investment and innovation to reach the new era. The Multilateral Discussion Session between Vietnam and international partners was arranged by WEF specifically for Vietnam to discuss the future of trade and development towards the 16th UNCTAD Conference hosted by Vietnam in 2025. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also attended and spoke at the Discussion Session "ASEAN: Connecting to Reach Far" as the leader of the economy considered to have the highest growth in ASEAN.

Professor Klaus Schwab - Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF assessed that the Prime Minister's participation at this year's Conference is of special significance to WEF and the global business community. Commenting that Vietnam is a model of economic growth and the combination of economic growth and environmental protection, the Professor believes that Vietnam is playing an increasingly larger role in the process of restructuring the geopolitical situation of the region and the world.

During the working trip, the Prime Minister and leaders of countries and international organizations had in-depth discussions on many regional and international issues; contributing to peace, stability, security, cooperation and sustainable development in the region and the world; agreeing on the need to peacefully resolve disputes on the basis of respect for international law and the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In particular, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized Vietnam's balanced, objective and consistent stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict; as a responsible member of the international community, Vietnam hosted the second US-North Korea summit and is ready to provide a venue and make every effort to best organize activities to find peaceful solutions to conflicts in the world. Regarding the Myanmar issue, with its role, prestige and relations, Vietnam is ready to cooperate with the United Nations and is ready to do everything to bring long-term peace and stability to Southeast Asia and Myanmar.

Pride of Vietnamese people abroad

The Prime Minister's working trip continues to affirm the attention of the Party, State and Government for the Vietnamese community abroad, of which the Czech Republic has about 100,000 Vietnamese, the largest in Europe, and Poland has about 25,000 people.

In particular, in addition to the usual activities to meet overseas Vietnamese during the visits, the Prime Minister and his wife, along with members of the working delegation, attended the "Homeland Spring" activities to celebrate Tet early for our people. According to the Prime Minister, these are special and unforgettable experiences in life and for his part, the Prime Minister also brought special gifts to the people when the plane carried Chung cake, pork roll and the Tet atmosphere from the homeland to the foreign land.

The Prime Minister also spent time visiting large Vietnamese commercial centers in Poland and the Czech Republic, such as the Sa Pa Commercial Center - a "miniature Vietnam" in Europe, receiving members of the Vietnam Innovation Network, Vietnamese experts and intellectuals in Europe, overseas Vietnamese businesses, and visiting typical overseas Vietnamese families.

The Prime Minister emphasized his affection and pride for the Vietnamese community in Poland, the Czech Republic in particular, and in Europe and the world in general, which has continuously grown and matured, with many people becoming famous, affirming the intelligence, bravery, spirit and cultural and historical traditions of Vietnam. Always united, wholeheartedly turning towards the homeland, making important contributions to the common achievements of the country, the Vietnamese community abroad is an inseparable part and an important resource of the Vietnamese ethnic community.

The Prime Minister spent a lot of time responding to each proposal and recommendation from overseas Vietnamese. In particular, the Prime Minister was pleased to inform the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic and Europe that the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has decided to choose Prague as the host of the first National Unity Day abroad. A day earlier, during a meeting with officials and staff of the Embassy and the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, overseas Vietnamese raised this recommendation and the Prime Minister said that he would immediately discuss it with the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

Encouraging the Vietnamese language teaching and learning center in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnamese is a bridge between previous and future generations, helping the young generation of Vietnamese living abroad understand more about the country's cultural and historical traditions, fostering patriotism and national pride. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's message about the Vietnamese community being an ethnic minority in the Czech Republic but "not a minority in quality and quantity", always proud and worthy of being the children of Lac and the grandchildren of Hong made the people extremely excited, touched and warmed.

The Prime Minister asked the Vietnamese people to continue to promote the tradition of diligence, mutual support and development, becoming a cultural and economic bridge between Vietnam and the host country; requested the Embassy to closely follow and grasp the situation accurately, accurately and promptly to advise the Party and the State, continue to do a good job of overseas Vietnamese, especially to find the fastest way to approach the Vietnamese people when they encounter difficulties, calamities and crises, consider the Vietnamese people as family members, put themselves in their shoes to solve problems with all their heart, absolutely no negativity or harassment.

At all the talks and meetings, the Prime Minister asked the high-ranking leaders of the three countries to create more favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to integrate better, preserve and promote the Vietnamese cultural identity and language. The Prime Minister asked Poland to consider recognizing the Vietnamese community as an ethnic minority, similar to the Czech Republic.

Senior leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland all highly appreciated the positive contributions of the Vietnamese community to the socio-economic development of their host countries, affirming that they will continue to pay attention and support to the Vietnamese community in their host countries.

The working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his wife Le Thi Bich Tran and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation was a great success, continuing to strongly implement the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, strengthening and deepening the friendly and multi-faceted cooperation with traditional partners in Western Europe and Central Eastern Europe, while opening up new cooperation opportunities with the world's leading business partners in emerging strategic fields.