Russian Far East Institute holds press conference on President's visit

This visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang will create new momentum for Russia-Vietnam bilateral relations.

Ahead of the official visit to the Russian Federation by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, which will take place from June 28 to July 1, on June 26 at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences held a press conference on the visit and a roundtable discussion on “Current status and prospects of Russia-Vietnam relations”.

The press conference on the visit to the Russian Federation of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and the roundtable discussion “Current status and prospects of Russia-Vietnam relations” were chaired by Mr. Sergei Luzyanin, Director of the Far Eastern Institute and Mr. Vladimir Mazyrin, Director of the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies of the Far Eastern Institute.

In addition to scholars and researchers from the Institute of Far East, Institute of Oriental Studies, Diplomatic Academy, Saint Petersburg State University, Center for Strategic Studies of Russia, etc., the event was attended by reporters from the news agencies "Russia Today", ITAR-TASS, Interfax, Sputnik, "Russian Orient" and reporters from Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency and Vietnam Television station stationed in Russia.

Delegates attending the press conference

Speaking at the opening of the press conference, Mr. Sergei Luzyanin, Director of the Far Eastern Institute, said that organizing two events right before the visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang is a great honor for the Institute.

Mr. Sergei Luzyanin highly appreciated the strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam over the past years, and affirmed that mutual visits by high-ranking leaders of the two countries, as well as leaders at all levels, will contribute to consolidating and enhancing bilateral cooperation between Russia and Vietnam in all fields.

Mr. Sergei Luzyanin informed about the purpose of the visit, the agreements that will be signed and answered reporters' questions about Russia-Vietnam cooperation in the fields of politics, economics, trade, investment, security - defense... Mr. Sergei Luzyanin affirmed that this visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang will create new momentum for Russia-Vietnam bilateral relations.

Mr. Sergei Luzyanin, Director of the Far Eastern Institute, spoke at the conference.

Immediately following the press conference was the roundtable discussion “Current status and prospects of Russia-Vietnam relations”. Ten presentations at the discussion focused on the following topics: Russia-Vietnam bilateral cooperation in the fields of politics, economics, investment, culture, technology and military; Impact of the Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Vietnam on bilateral trade; Trust issues in bilateral relations; Vietnam’s multilateral foreign policy; Vietnam’s role as Chairman of APEC and partnership with Russia; Common tasks of Russia and Vietnam in the field of national security…

At the workshop, delegates focused on discussing the current status of Russia-Vietnam bilateral relations, affirming that Russia considers Vietnam one of its main partners in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, and said that political relations between the two countries are always at a high level, however, economic cooperation and trade exchange are still not commensurate with the potential of the two sides.

According to Mr. Vladimir Mazyrin, Director of the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies of the Far Eastern Institute, despite many difficulties, bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam has grown in the first five months of this year, and he hopes that the results of the visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang will have a strong impact on this growth rate.

Mr. Vladimir Mazyrin affirmed: “According to Vietnam's data, bilateral trade last year was only 2.7 billion USD. However, in the first 5 months of 2017, there was a 30% growth and I predict that for the whole year it will be 3.2 to 3.3 billion USD. During this visit to Russia, it is expected to sign new, large-scale cooperation agreements in the field of infrastructure and thus there will be growth.”

The speeches at the workshop also analyzed and deeply evaluated the prospects of bilateral relations thanks to the Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Vietnam, as well as the trend of expanding investment of Vietnamese enterprises in Russia.

However, delegates also pointed out obstacles in bilateral relations such as: lack of information about the market, business operations, limited investment resources of both countries, low competitiveness of export goods, bilateral trade and investment are seriously affected due to dependence on the exchange rate of the domestic currency with the US dollar... Therefore, to solve the above problems, the two countries need to enhance confidence-building measures, identify a list of joint actions, quickly promote payments in domestic currency, establish a joint investment fund and foreign exchange reserves.

Mr. Dmitry Mosyakov, Director of the Center for Southeast Asian, Australian and Oceanian Studies, Oriental Institute, interviewed by VOV

Mr. Dmitry Mosyakov, Director of the Center for Southeast Asian, Australian and Oceanian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, also highly appreciated the upcoming visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, saying that during the visit, the two sides will discuss important issues and propose directions to resolve existing problems in the relationship between the two countries.

Mr. Dmitry Mosyakov affirmed: “The meeting at the high level is very important, setting the goals that need to be achieved and then the corresponding actions of government agencies and businesses to realize those goals. Therefore, this visit is very important and necessary because it creates new momentum, opens up new prospects that we can implement in the near future”.

Assessing the significance of the Roundtable Conference “Current status and prospects of Russia-Vietnam relations”, Mr. Vladimir Mazyrin said: “I think this roundtable conference is very useful for us because it brings together scientists who study Vietnam and its content covers all aspects of relations with Vietnam. It must be said that the collected documents, opinions and comments are very broad and objective, with many specific proposals.

According to my observations, most of the proposals from the experts of the Far Eastern Institute have been implemented and become agreements at the intergovernmental level. Therefore, I hope that the new ideas presented here and the assessments are practical for the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, and that they will help the general public and the leaders of the two countries have a basis for making decisions.

The roundtable discussion “Current status and prospects of Russia-Vietnam relations” is a practical measure to strengthen bilateral relations right before the visit to Russia by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang./.

According to VOV