In Hanoi on Friday, the Foreign Minister paid a courtesy visit to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who reiterated Vietnam’s respect to valuable bilateral friendship with priority given to strengthening its comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia. Minister  Lavrov said Vietnam has a prior position in Russia’s foreign policy and wished for more development and significant role played by Vietnam internationally. The same day, the Foreign Minister paid a courtesy visit to President Tran Dai Quang who called for practical and efficient cooperation in national defense and security on the basis of trusted strategic partnership.

President Tran Dai Quang met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

During talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Bình Minh, both agreed to promote exchanges of visits and consultative dialogues. They will cooperate timely to facilitate bilateral trade and investment while successfully organizing the Vietnam Year in Russia and Russia Year in Vietnam next year. They emphasized on the importance of peace, stability and navigation and aviation freedom, peaceful settlement of disputes in the East Sea through diplomatic and legal procedures in line with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told the press after talks: “High trust in political relations through frequent exchanges and close cooperation is the foundation towards sustainable and active development in bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership. The free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Coalition have been well implemented with expected trade revenue of 10 billion dollars in 2020.”

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “We agree that both sides will expand cooperation in trade and investment, especially in energy and energy cooperation for peaceful purposes, agriculture, training, banking and transport infrastructure. This visit has contributed significantly to bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.”