General Secretary visits Russia: Comprehensively deepening bilateral relations

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA.

On August 30, to celebrate the official visit to the Russian Federation by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong in early September, the Center for Vietnam and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Studies of the Russian Federation organized a roundtable discussion on the topic "Vietnam-Russian Federation Relations: Potential and Development Issues".

The conference gathered most of the generations of Vietnam scholars. The papers read at the forum had in-depth research content and presented a comprehensive picture of the relationship between Vietnam and the Russian Federation.

Opening the press conference before the Workshop, Director of the Far Eastern Institute Sergey Luzianin believed that the upcoming visit of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will deepen in a quality and responsible manner the economic, political, humanitarian aspects, and the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and the Russian Federation.

On the political level, relations between Vietnam and the Russian Federation have reached the height of strategic partnership.

Vietnam belongs to the group of countries with high political status in relations with the Russian Federation. Vietnam is the first country to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), thereby expanding relations not only with the Russian Federation but also with the five countries of the EAEU.

Humanitarianism and tourism are also a direction for developing relations between the two sides, and results in this field are increasing; Cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries have also made progress.

The trend is increasingly positive, especially in 2019, for the first time in the history of relations, the two countries will conduct cross-years - the Year of the Russian Federation in Vietnam and the Year of Vietnam in the Russian Federation.

However, answering reporters' questions about the current state of training in Vietnamese studies in the Russian Federation, experts noted that the quality and quantity of training have not yet met the demand.

In particular, only about 10% of the training students follow the path of scientific research, becoming experts on Vietnam. This rate inevitably causes concern about a gap behind the first generation of Vietnam scholars who are now old.
The relationship between Vietnam and the Russian Federation today also plays a role when the regional and world situation is in new conditions: Russia strengthens its "Eastward" policy, the US-China trade war, and Russia-China relations.

Russia has always affirmed that Vietnam is a bridge to the ASEAN region, where Russia intends to establish sustainable relations.

Vietnam is a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other regional projects.

Vietnam's active activities are especially meaningful when Russia will soon organize the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, gathering many leaders of Asian countries.

In the context of the sanctions policy that the US and the West apply to Russia, exploring and occupying a position in the Asian market, including the Vietnamese market, is a very important orientation for the Russian Federation.
As one of the leading experts of the Russian Federation studying Vietnam, Director of the Institute for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies Vladimir Mazyrin provided Russian press representatives with information about the characteristics of the political system in Vietnam with the comprehensive leadership role of the Communist Party.

Mr. Mazyrin also particularly emphasized the personal prestige of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in the fight against corruption that he resolutely carried out in Vietnam and received many positive reviews from international countries.

In his field of economic research, Dr. Mazyrin said that despite the emergence of new investment projects, such as the project to develop the livestock and food production industry of TH True Milk Group implemented in 4 provinces of the Russian Federation, the task of increasing bilateral trade turnover to 10 billion USD by 2020 is not an easy task and strategic projects are needed if we want to achieve that number.

He also said that to be worthy of the strategic partnership, the Russian Federation needs to have access to Vietnam's strategic sectors, including nuclear power, as well as other large-scale and socially significant projects such as metro transport.

Moving on to the discussion section, it can be seen that Vietnam is studied in a diverse, scientific manner, with historical depth but closely following domestic, international and regional practices.

The "Doi Moi" policy that the country has carried out since 1986 has brought Vietnam strong economic and social development, ended hyperinflation, and risen to the level of an "Asian tiger."

The country's foreign policy is based on the principles of independence, self-reliance, peace, multilateral cooperation, and active integration, which is considered to have improved Vietnam's international image and created the most favorable conditions for national development.

Considered as an opening door to ASEAN, the event of Vietnam hosting the World Economic Forum on ASEAN was also discussed at the Workshop.
Chairman of the Expert Council of The Workshop of Eurasian Ideas Foundation Grigory Trophimchuk said that in recent years, Vietnam's role has been increasing both economically and politically not only in Southeast Asia, but also in the Asia-Pacific region and globally.

That is why in Vietnam there are many forums that are meaningful in deciding the economy in the above areas.

The Asia-Pacific region is a key point in global economic and financial growth. In 2017, Vietnam successfully hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and this year is preparing for the World Economic Forum on ASEAN.

That shows that Vietnam's role and weight are increasing strongly in the international arena.

Russia is interested in developing economic relations with ASEAN. In addition, the current world situation is unstable, including in ASEAN. Many political and military developments require us to focus on strengthening security.

Russia-Vietnam-ASEAN relations not only aim to ensure security in the region, but also to increase economic and financial benefits for all participating countries./.