HANOI, June 13. /TASS/. Hanoi seeks to strengthen and expand its relations of friendship and strategic partnership with Moscow, Vietnamese Trade and Industry Minister Tran Tuan Anh said addressing a Russia Day reception at the Russian embassy.
According to him, as a close friend of the Russian people, Vietnam always keeps an eye on the events taking place in Russia and shares the Russians’ joy and pride over the country’s successes. "In the past 27 years, Russia overcame a number of difficulties and remained a country that continues to develop and occupies its rightful place among global powers," Tran Tuan Anh added. "We believe in the modernization strategy that Russia has been pursuing," he stressed.
The Vietnamese trade and industry minister pointed out that at the current stage, trade, economic, military, scientific and cultural cooperation between Hanoi and Moscow was growing, which was in the interest of both countries. Political interaction between Vietnam and Russia on the international stage has been becoming more and more effective, he said. "We look to the future of bilateral cooperation with optimism and confirm our determination to develop ties with Russia in every sphere," the Vietnamese mister concluded.
Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vnukov, in turn, said that despite numerous external and internal changes that Moscow and Hanoi had been facing in the recent years, both countries preserved interest in boosting mutually beneficial ties and bringing the two peoples closer to each other. "A steady deepening of comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, declared five years ago, is one of our main priorities concerning the Asian Pacific region," the ambassador said. "It is only natural, taking into consideration our profound friendship, mutual sympathy and mutual assistance," he added.
The Russian ambassador noted that the two countries had much to do to hold all high-level contacts planned for 2017, as well as many other meetings and talks aimed at improving the legislative basis of bilateral relations, providing ordinary people with better conditions for communication and fulfilling the task to increase trade turnover to ten billion dollars by 2020, set by the two countries’ authorities.
A large number of high-ranking members of the Vietnamese Communist Party, state officials and public figures, as well as foreign diplomats, attended the reception as special guests. During the reception, the Urals State Academic Folk Choir performed Russia’s national anthem, famous folk and contemporary Russian songs.