Bright prospects for Viet Nam-France strategic partnership
Witnessing new developments in Viet Nam-France relations, former Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep expressed his great pleasure and confidence in the agreements which were signed during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to France.
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| Former Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep. (Photo courtesy of Mr. Ambassador) |
On the occasion of the recent official visit by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to France, Ambassador Nguyen Thiep, who served as Vietnamese Ambassador to France from August 2018 to July 2021, shared his thoughts on the potential cooperation between Viet Nam and France.
Tight schedule with comprehensive results
Ambassador Nguyen Thiep was really impressed by the very tight schedule of PM Pham Minh Chinh's visit which brought about a series of agreements of cooperation between Viet Nam and France.
"The Prime Minister met almost all important French partners, from politicians, the business community to intellectuals and expatriates. The visit has reaffirmed and deepened the strategic partnership that the two countries started in 2013", he said.
According to the former Ambassador, during the talks between PM Pham Minh Chinh with senior French leaders, the two sides agreed on a wide range of issues in politics, both on bilateral and multilateral level, as shown in the Joint Declaration.
In economic terms, the number and value of signed agreements show that the two sides are ready to expand economic exchanges, trade and investment in strategic areas where France has strengths, such as infrastructure development, energy, digital technology, medicine, aviation, etc.
Among which, medical cooperation is of particular interest to both sides, reflected in the PM's short visit to Pasteur Institute and Sanofi Pharmaceutical Company as well as the assistance and cooperation between the two countries in COVID-19 pandemic fight during the past time.
Regarding cultural cooperation, the two sides agreed to boost cultural exchanges, especially supporting cultural centers in each country. According to Ambassador Thiep, the regular exchange between the French Cultural Center in Ha Noi and the Vietnamese Cultural Center in Paris has made up the speciality of the relations between the two countries, especially when Paris is one of only two capitals in the world having a Vietnamese Cultural House.
The visit was also a symbol of comprehensive diplomacy as the Prime Minister called upon and had cordial talks with the French Communist Party's National Secretary Fabien Roussel, reaffirming the special traditional relationship between Viet Nam's Communist Party and the French Communist Party.
During the visit, the Prime Minister met with a large number of overseas Vietnamese in France and Europe, continuing to affirm that the Party and State always consider overseas Vietnamese as an important and inseparable part and a development force of the country.
The Prime Minister also had meetings with the heads of international organizations in Paris which is home to the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organization of Francophonie International (OIF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
"In short, it made me extremely astonished because, in such a short time, the visit by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to France comprised of lots of activities covering so many areas of cooperation between Vietnam and its partners in France", said the Ambassador.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh addresses the Vietnam-France business forum. (Source: VNA) |
New potentials and opportunities
During the meetings and talks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and French leaders stressed the potential to create new opportunities for cooperation.
They said that Viet Nam and France are both in the first year of EVFTA implementation. France is one of the major markets for Vietnamese agricultural products thanks to the high demand from a big Asian community in France.
In recent years, French businesses have paid special attention to the potential of the Vietnamese market due to the large population, fast development and increasing demand for infrastructure, energy, urban management, digital technology...
Notably, France is one of the European countries with a high level of scientific, technical and technological development, not only in rail and air transport, seaport and airport development, but also in the satellite sector.
"It can be seen that Viet Nam-France cooperation will reach new milestones in the coming time. The move is of significance as both countries would celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership by 2023.
In other words, it is an important milestone marking the maturity of bilateral cooperation. It is also time to further deepen the Viet Nam-France Strategic Partnership, for the benefit of both peoples, the two countries and the two regions of ASEAN and the EU", Ambassador Thiep said.
Being a witness of the visit's success, the Ambassador expressed his belief that those signed agreements during the visit would be translated into reality in the next 1-2 years, making a practical contribution to further promoting bilateral cooperation.
"Therefore, I believe that the newly-reached commitments and agreements will become reality in the near future, especially in 2023. That will mark a substantial and profound development step after 10 years of establishing the strategic partnership between Viet Nam and France", he said.
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