Vietnam is gradually becoming one of the leading countries in Asia-Pacific.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev paid an official visit to Vietnam from April 5, 2015. During the visit, Prime Minister Medvedev gave an interview to the Vietnamese press about the prospects for cooperation between the two countries. VNA respectfully introduces the full text of the interview.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

PV:Mr. Prime Minister, Russia has repeatedly expressed its willingness to act as a link between East and West. This brings great potential. Meanwhile, Vietnam is interested in signing a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union. Could you please tell us specifically what practical steps Russia has taken to strengthen its position in the Asia-Pacific region? What role does ASEAN play in this process?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:Indeed, we have repeatedly expressed our desire to cooperate with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, ASEAN countries and directly with Vietnam. In recent years, we have taken many practical steps in this direction. Let me list them from the fact that we - representatives of Russia: both government representatives, business people, not to mention tourists - regularly visit countries in the region. With Vietnam, we have regular contacts.

I myself recently visited Vietnam - in 2012 - which was very important for us. In fact, in recent years, to a significant extent, we have moved towards active cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. However, orientation is not enough, practical steps are needed. These are the agreements we have reached, Russia's participation in important ASEAN activities and conferences, relations between the countries of the region with our new integration structure, the Eurasian Economic Union (according to this channel, we are actively preparing for a free trade agreement with Vietnam) and a number of other practical steps. Here I would like to talk about the entire range of our capabilities and actions, from high-level contacts to everyday people-to-people relations, including relations between businesses.

Of course, at the moment we have many ideas and plans to promote the strategic partnership with Vietnam to a new level. One of those ideas is the free trade agreement. Moreover, it will probably be the first agreement signed between the Eurasian Economic Union and a country. With that agreement, Vietnam will essentially have access to a market that includes not only the people of the Russian Federation, but also the partner countries in the Union, in fact, more than 40 million people.

What will we get? New prospects for cooperation. Recently, I spoke with the Russian Minister of Economic Development, and he confirmed that the negotiation process of the agreement with Vietnam has entered the final stage. We have indeed made significant progress on many points and wish to complete the negotiation process in the shortest possible time. However, the two sides still have to agree on a series of important issues, because the agreement we plan to sign is not only about our ability to access the Vietnamese market, but also about giving Vietnamese partners the ability to access our market.

This is important, but it is not everything, and perhaps not the main thing, because we still have trade cooperation with each other, still have a fairly good turnover of goods, cooperation at a high level. What we need is to create conditions for investment exchange, and Russia is ready for this. That is why the investment aspect needs to be improved, including the issue of so-called industrial processing, so that our companies can operate successfully in Vietnam's economic conditions.

There are also some issues related to the service sector. I will not go into details, but I think that the readiness of the document is high, and if we make efforts - I will discuss further with my partners, with my Vietnamese colleagues - then we have every chance to complete the negotiation process in the near future. For that reason, I very much hope that the talks during my upcoming visit to our friendly country Vietnam will bring practical results.

PV:Prime Minister, please evaluate the progress of Russia-Vietnam cooperation in the field of exploiting Vietnam's continental shelf?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:Cooperation in this field is progressing well. Our two countries have a rich history of relations in the field of continental shelf exploitation. The leading cooperative flag is the Vietsovpetro Oil and Gas Joint Venture - a long-standing enterprise, operating since the Soviet era. During those years, the joint venture has done a lot: exploiting large volumes of oil (hundreds of millions of tons) and a significant volume of associated gas (billions of cubic meters), which is a world-class exploitation volume.

What does this prove? It shows that this is a mutually beneficial cooperation. That is why the parties to the joint venture, the Russian company Zarubezhneft and the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, have agreed to continue maintaining this joint venture cooperation in the coming years, until 2030, because this cooperation has great potential.

However, we cannot stop at what has been achieved. Therefore, not only Zarubezhneft, but also many Russian corporations and companies, large state-owned enterprises, such as Rosneft and Gazprom, have their partners in Vietnam, and each of them is negotiating the possibility of cooperation. Rosneft has projects in some areas on the continental shelf that can be offered for exploration and exploitation. Negotiations are underway, and I hope that the process will yield positive results. Gazprom is also negotiating, and this process started in 2009. The readiness of this corporation to conclude the negotiations is even higher.

I hope that the project linking Gazprom with Vietnamese partners, that business model, will be put into operation at its designed capacity in 2016. We highly appreciate this cooperation, considering it beneficial, and therefore, income for both Vietnam and Russia, and intend to continue developing this direction of cooperation. That is why we have a whole set of projects in Russia and have invited Vietnamese friends to participate. Let me say frankly that this is a rare reality when we let foreign partners access and exploit on the territory of the Russian Federation, because in fact, in this field everything is well prepared by us, but this is a special plan, we reserve it for our Vietnamese partners.

Finally, given the fact that we have been cooperating for a long time, it is very important to find new promising forms of cooperation. That is, jointly processing oil and gas (not just exploiting), as well as jointly applying incentive mechanisms, so that our cooperation can develop better, both in the continental shelf of Vietnam and in the territory of the Russian Federation. That means applying diverse incentive mechanisms, including tax incentives, because in the places where we have been exploiting for a long time, the reserves have mostly been exhausted, and there is a need for solutions to either go deeper or find new areas, and this inevitably requires additional investment capital.

PV:Russia is one of the leading countries in science and technology. What position will the knowledge economy occupy in the global and regional economy in the future? How does the Prime Minister assess the prospects for Russia-Vietnam cooperation in the field of science and high technology?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:Thank you for your appreciation of our leading role in this field, it is a pleasure to hear that from our friends and partners. We are indeed very interested in this and believe that the future certainly belongs to the knowledge economy, or as we often call it the new economy, associated with the application of science and high technology. That is why, even in the current rather complicated economic conditions, we still strive not to cut costs on funding scientific programs, developing high-tech parks, and building scientific research clusters.

We will continue this path, even, I repeat, at a time when we are facing many economic factors that are not entirely favorable. Why is that? It is related to the fact that the whole world believes that the future of any economy depends largely on the technological equipment of that economy, on what machines are used there, what technologies are applied, what technological solutions are applied. This is a world trend, the path of the whole world. I know that our Vietnamese friends also have the same point of view, I saw this clearly when I visited your facilities - both universities and other places, where I noticed a great interest in science and scientific cooperation, moreover, it can be said that our cooperation in the field of science and training has been proven over many decades.

I cannot forget the meeting with Vietnamese comrades who had previously studied in the Soviet Union and Russia. The atmosphere that day was unforgettable. It was not only about friendship, but also about knowledge and experience acquired from the Soviet Union and Russia, which are still useful to Vietnam and our good relations. Therefore, we are of course very ready to develop different forms of cooperation with our Vietnamese friends.

As an example, I can mention the Ninh Thuan-1 nuclear power plant project, because this is clearly high-tech. Russia is leading in the field of nuclear industry and atomic energy. However, to operate such projects, it takes more than just money. It is not only important to build the plant, but also that this is a complex project, its operation and safety must be guaranteed, so it requires highly specialized staff. That is why we in Russia are training Vietnamese students and experts at the Moscow Research Nuclear University (MIFI) and other institutions, so that later those experts can work well at the above-mentioned nuclear power plant and contribute to the development of high technology in general in Vietnam, including nuclear technology. I think that is a great example of cooperation, and we have many such examples. I hope that such examples will continue to appear in the future.

PV:Russia is firmly in the top 10 countries with the most tourists to Vietnam, and is the leading country in terms of growth rate of tourists to Vietnam. Due to obvious reasons, since the beginning of 2015, the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam has decreased by 40%. Could the Prime Minister please tell us how this situation can be overcome?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:That situation will certainly improve. Of course, the decrease in tourist arrivals is related to our economic difficulties, to the ruble exchange rate. For obvious reasons, demand has decreased a little, but whether it is a recession, we have to see how it is calculated. Last year, 2014, the number of tourists increased by a third. So if there is a decrease, it is not serious, only down to the level of 2013, and in general, there are still many Russian tourists in Vietnam. Of course, it may not be as many as tourists from some other countries, but at least the number of nearly 400,000 tourists a year is still considered a lot.

Of course, everyone understands that the economic factor here is very important (I hope that in the near future, when the situation stabilizes, there will be no more problems), and as for the attractiveness of the resort market - on our side, Russian tourists are still very interested in vacationing in Vietnam. Your country is very interesting, with a long-standing culture and good resort locations, so in this regard I have no doubts. Of course, in my opinion, there is another very important thing, which is how to make those tourist flows circulate back and forth, or we can say circulate in the opposite direction.

I note that from the Vietnamese side, from Vietnam to Russia there are from 75,000 to 80,000 tourists. I emphasize that this number is tourists, not people who come to work, which is larger. I think that, because Vietnam is a populous country, we also need to make efforts in this direction. Russia is a big country, we have many places to visit, so we always welcome tourists. I think in general we have good prospects for developing tourism exchanges between the two countries.

PV:Prime Minister, please tell us if there is any opportunity or specific plan for Russia-Vietnam trade transactions to switch to payment in the two countries' local currencies?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:Firstly, there are currently no obstacles to payments in rubles and Vietnamese Dong. There are no legal obstacles. But there is also an economic factor. We agreed on the possibility of using local currency for payments nearly ten years ago and even established a specialized bank, the Vietnam - Russia Bank. But of course, using local currency is only beneficial when the two sides have a large trade turnover and when there is a need to accumulate reserves either in rubles or VND. Currently, between us, payments in local currency account for about 1.5%, the rest are paid in USD, which is not always beneficial, because for both us and you, USD is a foreign currency, we must first spend money to buy USD, and depend on the USD exchange rate, and then we can use it to pay each other.

In this regard, opening reciprocal foreign currency accounts in the national currencies of the two countries could be even more beneficial. Moreover, of course, the issue here is not only trade transactions, but also investment activities. We are trying to develop this topic in two-way payments with other countries, with our partners. I think that the development of relations in this area with Vietnam also has good prospects. I will definitely raise this topic in talks with my Vietnamese partners.

In today's discussion, there is one more thing I would like to say, which is that we look forward to achieving good results from the upcoming visit to Vietnam. We will have enough time to visit a number of places. I think this is also a manifestation of the special relationship between our two countries, and also an expectation that this relationship will develop and strengthen in the future.

PV:The Prime Minister has visited Vietnam many times. Can you share your feelings and impressions of Vietnam during your upcoming visit?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:I am very happy to share this. You know, I am always happy to visit your country, because over time I can witness the development of Vietnam, your country has changed a lot. Since the first time I set foot in your country as part of an official delegation (quite a long time ago, about 12-13 years ago), I have noticed the strong growth rate of the Vietnamese economy, as we now say "drive", and this is very interesting.

I have been following your achievements closely and I must say that they are impressive. Truly impressive! You can clearly see how industry and agriculture have developed, how daily life has changed, how people live. Perhaps this is the most important thing, because it is no secret that 20-30 years ago our two countries were not ranked among the richest countries, I mean neither Vietnam nor the Soviet Union. Now that you have achieved such obvious success, we are very excited.

On the other hand, besides a modern, dynamic, fast-growing Vietnam, a country that is gradually becoming one of the leading countries in the Asia-Pacific region, there is also an ancient Vietnam, with its own unique history and culture, which is also very attractive. That is why I always find it very interesting to see historical and cultural relics, to see this or that theme or that composition, the scenes that can be said to be typical of Vietnam, and try not only to see but even, if possible, to take pictures to keep. I would be very happy if I had the opportunity to do so on my next visit.

Finally, I cannot help but mention it again. We have a very sincere relationship, this is the truth. This is not a polite way of speaking, nor is it simply an assessment of a good relationship, but it is what it is. It is like history. I have shared my feelings about the first time I met Vietnamese friends, comrades who worked in Leningrad, including at the university where my father taught. Since then, nothing has really changed. Every such meeting is a meeting of very kind friends, a meeting that gives rise to many wonderful emotions. I am sure that it will be the same in the future.

PV:Dear Prime Minister, we will soon celebrate some very important holidays. In Vietnam, April 30th marks the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country. In Russia, May 9th marks the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Please assess the significance of these events. On this occasion, what message do you have for everyone?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:These dates are of great significance. For the anniversary of Vietnam, it is the unification and then the successful development of a very large country, Vietnam. It is a national holiday, and we have paid due attention to that when we have designed the program of our visit to Vietnam. It is our first visit to the South, and this is very interesting and important for us. I feel that this is a good sign. Even though it was a long time ago, I still remember what happened: the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people, the support and assistance that we tried to give to this struggle back then, and the results achieved. So we sincerely congratulate you on the upcoming holidays.

As for our holiday, it is also a common holiday for all of us. It is truly a victory over world-wide evil, over fascism, in the struggle against which many countries and peoples participated. And of course we are preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Victory in a serious way. I would like to emphasize once again: it is not just a Russian holiday, it is a world anniversary, because it was a world war, a very fierce war, a war that caused terrible consequences, took away many lives, a huge number of casualties. It is necessary to do everything so that similar events cannot be repeated in the world, that is why organizing such anniversaries is very important for future generations. We are always happy to welcome our Vietnamese friends on such holidays, we will celebrate together.

PV:Thank you, Prime Minister, for taking the time to answer this interview.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev:Thanks guys.

According toVNA/News