Prime Minister receives Chairman of the Russian Federation Council

At the reception, the Prime Minister asked the Russian Parliament to support and promote the two sides to soon sign an agreement on food safety control to facilitate Vietnamese enterprises to export agricultural and aquatic products to the Russian market.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council, Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On the morning of February 21, at the Government headquarters, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council, Ms. Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko, who is on an official visit to Vietnam.

“Inheriting the Vietnam-Soviet relationship, Vietnam and the Russian Federation have had a good traditional relationship with a long history of nearly 70 years. Since establishing a strategic partnership and upgrading it to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2012, Vietnam has always given priority to consolidating and strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership with the Russian Federation,” the Prime Minister stated.

“The Vietnamese Government and people see that the political trust between our two countries is consolidated and strengthened in any circumstances.” That trust is demonstrated through mutual high-level visits, including the visit to Vietnam by the Chairman of the Russian Federation Council today.

Expressing her pleasure at meeting Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc again after his visit to Russia in May 2016, Ms. Matviyenko affirmed that the purpose of this visit to Vietnam is to further strengthen the cooperative relationship between the National Assembly and people of the two countries.

“For the first time, Vietnam has a woman holding the position of Chairwoman of the National Assembly. This means that cooperation between the two National Assemblies headed by women will develop further,” said Ms. Matviyenko.

Ms. Matviyenko said that Vietnam has one of the highest economic growth rates in the Asia-Pacific region, which demonstrates the correct direction and effectiveness of Vietnam's socio-economic development solutions.

Emphasizing the history of traditional Vietnam-Russia relations, Ms. Matviyenko hopes that both sides need to continue making efforts to promote this good relationship.

The Chairman of the Russian Federation Council suggested that the two countries should maintain and increase delegation exchanges, especially high-level delegations, promote economic and trade cooperation, and increase bilateral trade turnover while the potential for cooperation between the two countries is still very large.

Ms. Matviyenko said that Russia highly values ​​investment and production and business projects of Russian enterprises in Vietnam and hopes that the Vietnamese Government and relevant agencies will continue to pay attention and create favorable conditions for these investment cooperation projects and programs.

She expressed her wish to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in the fields of refining, petrochemicals, and liquefied gas, which are Russia's strengths. In addition, the two sides can also promote cooperation in agriculture, exchange of agricultural products, and food because the two countries are both potential markets.

Expressing respect for Vietnam's decision to stop the nuclear power project, Ms. Matviyenko said that Russia wishes to continue cooperating with Vietnam in this field; and proposed promoting the implementation of the cooperation agreement between the two sides on the construction of the Nuclear Science and Technology Center in Vietnam.

The Chairman of the Russian Federation Council also emphasized the traditional cooperation between the two countries in the field of education and training, with many generations of Vietnamese students having studied and lived in Russia. At the same time, he said that this year, the Russian Government will award about 1,000 scholarships to Vietnamese students.

She emphasized that the Russian Federation is ready to support Vietnam in training and teaching Russian in Vietnam and hopes that the Vietnamese side will create favorable conditions for the organization of the Russian Cultural Days in Vietnam in 2017.

Expressing agreement with Ms. Matviyenko's opinions, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the role of women as current Chairwomen of the National Assembly of the two countries.

The Prime Minister agreed that the two sides need to continue the mechanism of exchanging delegations at all levels; diversify cooperation channels between the two National Assemblies and between ministries, branches and localities of the two countries.

The Prime Minister welcomed the fact that the two countries' Foreign Ministries are coordinating to unify the content and effectively implement the list of priority tasks for 2017 to make the bilateral cooperation more substantial, effective and comprehensive.

To create a breakthrough to achieve the goal of increasing bilateral trade turnover, the Prime Minister suggested that the ministries and functional branches of both sides need to closely coordinate and synchronously implement the Vietnam - Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement effectively. The Prime Minister hopes that the Russian Parliament will promote its role in supervising the implementation of the Agreement and support the early issuance of internal documents necessary for the implementation of the Agreement in accordance with Russian law.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also asked the Russian National Assembly to support and promote the early signing of an agreement on food safety control to facilitate Vietnamese enterprises exporting agricultural and aquatic products to the Russian market. Vietnam hopes that the National Assembly, relevant agencies and localities of Russia will support the implementation of the Vietnam Light Industrial Park project as well as investment activities of Vietnamese enterprises in Russia in general.

In addition to continuing to implement oil and gas cooperation projects, Vietnam supports Russia's active participation in energy and infrastructure projects (railways, subways) in Vietnam. Vietnam affirms that it always considers Russia a priority partner in military technical cooperation and wishes to continue to strengthen cooperation with Russia in defense and security.

Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The Prime Minister thanked the Russian National Assembly and Government for continuing to help Vietnam train human resources and plans to increase the number of scholarships granted to Vietnam to 1,000 per year. The two sides can continue to study the construction of a Russian University and continue teaching Russian in Vietnam. The Vietnamese side will actively support the successful organization of the Russian Cultural Days in Vietnam in 2017.

The Prime Minister said that to facilitate Russian tourists, Vietnam has applied electronic visas for Russian citizens and expressed hope that the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam will continue to increase in the coming time.

Appreciating the cooperation between localities of the two countries through the Russian Federation Council's connection channel, the Prime Minister hoped that this connection channel will continue to be effective in the coming time.

At the reception, the Prime Minister thanked and asked the Russian side to continue creating favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Russia to reside and do business stably, legally, and long-term in Russia and integrate into the host country.

According to Chinhphu.vn