VN, Russia seek measures to forge bilateral ties

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung (L) and his Russian counterpart Maksim Akimov at the meeting

They concurred to implement high-level agreements reached during the official visit to Russia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong last September.

Both sides held that economic, trade and investment ties between Viet Nam and Russia have developed dynamically over the past time, with the effective realisation of the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union to which Russia is a member.

Two-way trade reached US$3.55 billion in 2017, up 31% against the same period last year. The turnover stood at US$ 3.4 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 36.8% year-on-year.

Investment cooperation has also been expanded as seen through Viet Nam’s big investment projects in Russia.

They shared the view that the two countries have a lot of potential for collaboration, particularly in the areas of their strength like energy, agriculture, industry, transport, science-technology, and education-training.

Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung and his Russian counterpart Maksim Akimov, who co-chaired the meeting, discussed concrete measures to foster the bilateral affiliation amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in trade-investment, information-technology, transport infrastructure, finance-banking, energy, science and education-training.

They consented to consider the lift of non-tariff barriers in import-export, particularly in agriculture and fisheries, aiming to raise the bilateral trade to US$10 billion in 2020 as set by leaders of the two countries.

The two sides also compared notes on measures to enhance bilateral transactions by domestic currencies.

In the sphere of energy, they agreed to create more favourable conditions for oil and gas projects, while expanding the collaboration in other fields like liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electricity.

They looked into promising transport infrastructure cooperation projects, especially railway ones in Viet Nam.

At the end of the session, the two Deputy PMs witnessed the signing of some cooperation agreements between Vietnamese and Russian businesses and organisations in the fields of banking, telecommunications and education-training.

The 22nd session of the committee is scheduled to be held in Viet Nam in 2019.

The Deputy PMs told the press that the meeting was a success, further explaining that they discussed major cooperation areas in a candid, open, practical and comprehensive manner.-VNA