Strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia

On November 25, at the Russian President's Residence in Sochi City, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had talks with President V. Putin.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Russian President Putin

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong expressed his pleasure in visiting the beautiful and hospitable Russia and meeting again with President V. Putin, a close friend of the Vietnamese people; affirmed that the Party, State and people of Vietnam always respect and are grateful for the great, sincere and effective support and assistance of the people of the former Soviet Union and the people of Russia today in the cause of national liberation as well as in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland of Vietnam; affirmed that Vietnam's consistent policy is to always attach importance to and wish to strengthen and further promote the comprehensive strategic partnership with the Russian Federation, considering Russia as one of Vietnam's most important and trustworthy partners.

The General Secretary said that in recent years, despite facing many difficulties and challenges, the Russian Federation has continued to develop in all aspects, playing an important and active role in resolving international issues; expressed his firm belief that, under the leadership of President V. Putin, the Russian people will continue to achieve even greater achievements in the cause of national construction and development, consolidate and enhance its position as a great power, and play an increasingly important role in ensuring peace, security, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin agreed that the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the Russian Federation have been tested and challenged over time, becoming an invaluable asset of the two peoples and a solid foundation, an important premise for the two countries to continue to consolidate and strengthen their friendship and cooperation in the following decades of the 21st century; highly appreciated the good developments in the cooperation between the two countries in recent times in all fields, especially the high-level agreements reached by the two countries in recent times; affirmed the policy of continuing to further strengthen the relationship between the two ruling parties, agencies of the National Assembly, ministries, branches and localities of the two countries, and social organizations; positively assessed the dynamism in bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

However, the two leaders said that the results achieved were still modest, not commensurate with the level of development of good political relations, the potential and desires of both sides.

The leaders of the two countries highly appreciated the important coordinating role of the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Committee on Economic-Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation (UBLCP), its Subcommittees and Working Groups in preparing and implementing cooperation projects and programs; expressed satisfaction with the negotiation process of the Agreement on the Free Trade Area between Vietnam and the member states of the Customs Union (the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan); positively evaluated the implementation of the List of priority tasks in the cooperation relationship between the two countries, as well as the results of the 17th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the two countries in Vladivostok in early September 2014.

Vietnam welcomed the Customs Union member states for completing internal procedures for the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union to take effect from January 1, 2015; expressed confidence that the Union's commencement of operations will contribute to ensuring sustainable economic development in the region and the world.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin agreed to propose specific measures to further promote the friendship and cooperation between the two countries, first of all, effectively implementing the List of Priority Tasks for 2014 and soon agreeing on the List for 2015; well implementing the Plan to organize programs to celebrate major holidays of the two countries in 2015, including the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The two sides agreed to maximize their advantages to increase bilateral trade turnover to 7 billion USD by 2015 and 10 billion USD by 2020; speed up progress to conclude negotiations and initial the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Customs Union by the end of 2014 and officially sign it in early 2015.

The two sides affirmed to continue cooperation in the fields of mineral exploitation and processing, machine manufacturing, fuel, energy and other fields. The two sides set the task of continuing to actively work within the framework of the Vietnam-Russia High-Level Working Group on priority investment projects in the context of signing the Agreement on the free trade area between Vietnam and the member states of the Customs Union.

Focus on cooperation in oil, gas and nuclear power

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin emphasized the priority of developing cooperation in the energy sector, focusing on oil and gas and nuclear power cooperation.

The two leaders highly appreciated bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector; agreed to fully implement existing projects and launch new cooperation projects, creating favorable conditions for the two countries' state-owned oil and gas companies to operate in each other's territories; decided to strengthen cooperation in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Vietnam's continental shelf in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; agreed to speed up negotiations to reach a cooperation agreement on the expansion and modernization of Dung Quat Oil Refinery.

In the field of nuclear power, the Russian Federation affirmed to continue to help Vietnam train officials and improve the capacity of experts, scientists and administrative officials in the field of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and is ready to accept Vietnamese citizens to study at Russian universities in the atomic field.

The two sides emphasized the importance of continuing to expand exchanges between competent authorities of the two countries on building a national system to ensure nuclear safety in Vietnam. The leaders of the two countries agreed to promote cooperation in building the Ninh Thuan 1 Nuclear Power Plant with the motto of using advanced technology, ensuring absolute safety, efficiency and the highest quality; decided to accelerate the implementation of the project to build a Nuclear Science and Technology Center in Vietnam.

The two sides highly appreciated cooperation in the field of defense and military technology, which is a traditional field of cooperation, plays an important role, has high reliability and is effective between the two countries, in accordance with the provisions of international law, contributing to ensuring peace, stability and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

The two sides decided to expand cooperation in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and the agro-industrial complex, including increasing the export of Vietnamese goods to the Russian market and attracting Vietnamese enterprises to establish agricultural production facilities on Russian territory, first of all in the Far East and Moscow region.

The two sides agreed that it is necessary to strengthen and diversify cooperation in the field of credit finance, including the use of payment cards and local currencies in foreign economic payments, and to increase the participation of the Vietnam - Russia Bank in implementing bilateral projects in the oil, gas and energy sectors. The two sides affirmed the need to increase the use of the potential of the International Investment Bank as a source of finance for industrial projects and large infrastructure projects that currently need to attract long-term credits.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin agreed to elevate cooperation in the fields of education, science and technology to a strategic level. With decades of cooperation in this field, the former Soviet Union and the present-day Russian Federation have trained tens of thousands of high-quality experts and scientists for Vietnam. President V. Putin pledged that Russia will continue to help Vietnam in training cadres in areas where Russia has strengths and Vietnam has needs. First of all, the two sides need to make more efforts to implement the project to establish the Vietnam-Russia University of Technology in Hanoi, as well as ensure the stable operation of the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Science and Technology Research Center to implement key bilateral cooperation projects;

The two sides highly appreciated the cooperation in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and people-to-people exchange between the two countries; expressed satisfaction that in recent years the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam has continued to increase, which is an important channel contributing to firmly consolidating the friendly relations between the two peoples.

The leaders of the two countries acknowledged the significant contributions of Vietnamese citizens living, working and studying in Russia and Russian citizens living, working and studying in Vietnam in maintaining and promoting the traditional friendship, mutual assistance and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and agreed to continue creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese and Russian citizens to live, work and study in each other's territories, in accordance with the laws of each country, in the spirit of friendship and in accordance with the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin discussed and reached high consensus on international and regional issues of mutual concern; affirmed to continue to strengthen close coordination at international forums to build a multipolar, fair, democratic world order, based on the supremacy of international law, respecting the sovereignty and legitimate interests of all countries with the leading role of the United Nations as a global mechanism in maintaining international peace and security.

The two sides emphasized the importance of the Vietnam-Russia relationship in the Asia-Pacific region and the enhancement of the role of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), as well as mechanisms in which ASEAN is the core, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), etc.

Regarding territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, including the East Sea issue, the two sides emphasized the need to resolve them by peaceful means, without using force or threatening to use force, on the basis of international law, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in order to maintain peace, stability, freedom, security and safety of navigation in the region; the two sides support the full and effective implementation of the DOC and move towards the early adoption of the COC.

Previously, also at the Presidential Residence in Sochi City, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin held a small meeting.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong sincerely thanked President V. Putin, the Government and people of the Russian Federation for the extremely respectful, warm, sincere and thoughtful welcome given to the General Secretary and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam; respectfully invited and conveyed the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang to President V. Putin to visit Vietnam again at an appropriate time. President V. Putin sincerely thanked and accepted the invitation.

Leaders of the two countries witnessed the signing ceremony of the Agreement between Vietnam and Russia on cooperation in the fields of information, communications, information technology and mass media.

At the end of the talks, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin witnessed the signing ceremony of 9 cooperation documents between the two countries and met with reporters from both countries, announcing the good results of the talks. The signed documents include: Agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the fields of information, communications, information technology and mass media; Agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the maritime field; Agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Government of the Russian Federation on strategic partnership in the fields of education, science and technology; Working plan on cooperation between the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Russian Federal Customs Service to combat customs violations in the period 2014-2016; Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of physical training and sports between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation; Framework agreement on gas price mechanism of Gazpromviet Joint Venture Company between Petrovietnam and Gazprom; Long-term crude oil supply agreement between Petrovietnam and Gazpromneft and Agreement on establishment of Joint Venture Company for exploration and exploitation of Dolghinskoe field in the Russian Federation between Petrovietnam and Gazpromneft; Memorandum of Understanding on continued strategic cooperation between Petrovietnam and Zarubezhneft.

The two leaders also informed the press about the two countries' issuance of a Joint Statement on Continuing to Strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Russian Federation on the occasion of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to the Russian Federation.

On the afternoon of November 25, local time, or the night of November 25, Hanoi time, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had a friendly meeting with representatives of the Vietnamese community working, living and studying in Krasnodar Region (Russian Federation).

According to VOV