HANOI, May 19. /TASS/. The political relations between Vietnam and Russia are characterized by high mutual trust and both countries are successfully developing bilateral trade and economic cooperation and expanding partnership in many spheres, Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang said on Thursday.
Vietnam’s president made this statement in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman. This is the first interview by the head of the Vietnamese state with foreign media since he was approved as Vietnam’s president by the national parliament in April.
Vietnam and Russia have a long history of traditional friendship and bilateral relations. In 2015, both countries celebrated 65 years since they had established diplomatic relations.
"I’m glad to note that we have achieved considerable successes in recent years in many areas of inter-state cooperation, in particular, in the spheres of trade and the economy, defense and security, science, education and personnel training," the Vietnamese president said.
"However, the level of Vietnamese-Russian partnership in the trade and economic sphere does not match the sides’ available potential so far," he added.
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"We need jointly to take comprehensive measures aimed at intensifying Vietnamese-Russian interaction in all the spheres of cooperation," Vietnam’s president said.
Vietnam’s leader characterized as exceptionally important for further development of partnership relations the Agreement on a free trade zone between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed a year ago and currently in the process of its ratification.
Tran Dai Quang said he was confident that once the Agreement on the free trade zone came into force, it would create new favorable conditions for the promotion of cooperation in the spheres of trade, the economy and investments between Vietnam and the EAEU in general, and between Vietnam and Russia, in particular.