Economic cooperation: KEY PILLAR of VN-Russia ties

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The visit is expected to help further enhance the cooperative relationship between the two nations across all spheres.

Viet Nam and Russia signed the Statement on strategic partnership in 2001 and upgraded the bilateral ties to the comprehensive strategic partnership in July 2012.

The two sides have maintained mechanisms and dialogues such as the strategic dialogue on diplomacy-defense-security at permanent deputy foreign minister level, defense strategic dialogue at deputy defense ministerial level and the political consultation at deputy foreign ministerial level.

Both sides have shared common positions on a wide range of international and regional issues, coordinating closely and  supporting each other at such international forums as the UN, APEC, ASEM, ARF and CICA.

Russia advocates Viet Nam’s standpoints on addressing disputes in the East Sea through peaceful measures in line with the international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) as well as early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

The two-way trade turnover increased from US$2.7 billion in 2016 to US$3.55 billion in 2017 and US$4.5 billion in 2018.

As of February 2019, Russia poured more than US$950 million in 127 projects, ranking 24^th among nations and territories investing in Viet Nam, focusing on such areas as petrol, processing and manufacturing.  

Meanwhile, Viet Nam has invested in 20 projects in Russia with the total capital of nearly US$3 billion.

The two nations’ cooperation in other sectors such as culture, tourism, education-training, defense-security and science-technology have made remarkable achievements.

The number of Russian visitors to Viet Nam rocketed from 176,000 in 2012 to 606,000 in 2018, making Russia the biggest European source market of Viet Nam.

In education, Russia raised the number of scholarships for Viet Nam from 345 in 2011 to 1,000 in 2018. Currently, more than 5,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Russia.

Local-to-local exchanges have been maintained and strengthened through a number of delegation exchanges and signing of cooperative agreements.

By Thuy Dung