Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha receives EU diplomats in Vietnam
WVR - The EU hope to elevate Vietnam-EU relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and will continue to promote cooperation with Vietnam across various fields.
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| Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha warmly welcomes EU Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires in Vietnam. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
On the afternoon of December 16, in Hanoi, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the European Union (EU), Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha warmly welcomed EU Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires in Vietnam.
Expressing his pleasure at meeting the EU Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires just before Christmas and New Year 2026, Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà emphasized that the 35-year journey of partnership and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the EU has achieved significant milestones, developing dynamically, strongly, deeply, and effectively across all fields.
Since the signing of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in 2019, bilateral trade has maintained positive growth, averaging 10-15% annually. The EU's total FDI has exceeded 30 billion USD, making the EU Vietnam's fourth-largest trading partner, third-largest export market, and sixth-largest investor.
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| Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha expresses his pleasure at meeting the EU Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires just before Christmas and New Year 2026. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
Thanking the EU countries for their friendship and invaluable support for Vietnam's development in recent years, the Deputy Prime Minister shared Vietnam's achievements in 2025, noting that it was a significant year for the country's development, marking new development thinking with many institutional innovations and strategic policies in science and technology, healthcare, education, and the private sector.
The Deputy Prime Minister expressed that in the upcoming journey, Vietnam hopes to continue receiving the companionship, sharing, and support of European partners and friends and is ready to elevate Vietnam-EU relations to a higher level, both in breadth and depth. He believes that Vietnam and the EU can cooperate and complement each other in many areas, from economy and trade to science and technology, climate change response, and environmental protection. Additionally, there is a need to strongly promote cooperation in education and training, culture, arts, people-to-people exchange, green transition, and digital transformation.
On behalf of the EU countries, Mr. Rafael De Bustamante, EU Chargé d'affaires in Vietnam, expressed his gratitude to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha for the warm and solemn meeting, especially amidst Hanoi's festive Christmas and New Year atmosphere.
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| The Deputy Prime Minister expressed that in the upcoming journey, Vietnam hopes to continue receiving the companionship, sharing, and support of European partners and friends and is ready to elevate Vietnam-EU relations to a higher level, both in breadth and depth. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
The EU Chargé d'affaires affirmed that Vietnam is a priority partner for the EU in Southeast Asia, and relations between Vietnam and the EU, as well as with member countries, are developing very positively and dynamically. The year 2025 marks many important milestones, not only celebrating Vietnam's significant anniversaries but also the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the EU, such as 75 years of relations with Central and Eastern European countries, 50 years of relations with Germany, and 35 years of Vietnam-EU relations.
Building on this solid foundation of cooperation, the EU Chargé d'affaires hopes that Vietnam-EU relations will soon be elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and will continue to promote cooperation with Vietnam in various fields, including effective implementation of the EVFTA, infrastructure projects, green transition, digital transformation, implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and sustainable development...
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| The EU Chargé d'affaires affirmed that Vietnam is a priority partner for the EU in Southeast Asia, and relations between Vietnam and the EU, as well as with member countries, are developing very positively and dynamically. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
Congratulating Vietnam on its development achievements, including high economic growth despite challenges from natural disasters, and Vietnam's tourism reaching a record of welcoming 20 million international visitors, the EU Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires also highly appreciated Vietnam's strong and rapid changes in recent times. They noted that these initial changes have had a very positive impact on the foreign business community, such as the two-tier government system, the review and completion of the legal system, especially the issuance of a series of strategic resolutions paving the way for integration and private economic development.
The Ambassadors and Chargé d'affaires all believe that Vietnam's potential is still very large and are confident that the strong reforms the Vietnamese Government is implementing will continue to strengthen Vietnam's attractiveness to partners and foreign investors.
Thanking the support of Vietnamese ministries and sectors in recent times, representatives of EU countries positively evaluated Vietnam's favourable visa exemption policy for European citizens and hope that in the future, the Vietnamese Government will further facilitate trade, investment, cultural and artistic exchanges, people-to-people exchanges, and student exchanges between Vietnam and EU countries.
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| The Deputy Prime Minister expressed that with the goal of developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly fisheries sector, the Vietnamese Government wishes to promote cooperation with EU partners in aquaculture, helping Vietnam gradually transition from exploitation to aquaculture, and develop marine services and tourism sustainably. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
Regarding maritime cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister Ha emphasized that as a country with a long coastline, Vietnam wishes to promote cooperation with countries, including the EU, in sustainable maritime development such as marine research, marine environmental protection, marine economy, and responsible fisheries exploitation, including combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that recently, Vietnam has invested heavily in technology systems and voyage monitoring equipment (VMS), deploying monitoring software to track fishing vessels so that all activities from voyage tracking, reporting, control to administrative sanctions are public and transparent.
Vietnam has also fundamentally amended fisheries laws, fully supplementing violations and administrative and criminal penalties at strict levels for violations related to illegal fisheries exploitation. Particularly, the Prime Minister directly chairs weekly meetings to completely end illegal, unreported, and unregulated fisheries exploitation.
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| EU countries highly appreciate Vietnam's strong and rapid changes in recent times. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
The Deputy Prime Minister expressed that with the goal of developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly fisheries sector, the Vietnamese Government wishes to promote cooperation with EU partners in aquaculture, helping Vietnam gradually transition from exploitation to aquaculture, and develop marine services and tourism sustainably.
The Deputy Prime Minister is confident that, in the near future, based on the political trust and excellent cooperation between Vietnam and the EU over the past 35 years, the cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the EU, as well as with member countries, will be further strengthened, contributing positively to peace, stability, and prosperity in both regions and around the world.
