MOSCOW, September 28. / TASS /. Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son has marked the high level of trust between Moscow and Hanoi, expressing hope for the further development of the strategic partnership between the states.
Bui Thanh Son noted that Russia had always been a strategically important priority for Vietnam. "We have no strategic differences, and our countries share a very strong level of trust," the top diplomat said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.
As the foreign minister noted, Moscow and Hanoi need to further develop the strategic dialogue. "There are very significant fields of cooperation, in particular, the security and development of Vietnam. We do not cooperate in these areas with other countries, only with Russia," Bui Thanh Son stressed. The top diplomat also mentioned that along with maintaining a lasting friendship, the sides needed to update their lines of cooperation to boost the comprehensive strategic partnership.
"In order to give a new impetus to our relations, we also need to benefit from the fact that recently, we have celebrated the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations, the 20th anniversary of setting up a strategic partnership, and next year we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," the Vietnamese minister said.
Continuity of relationship
Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov congratulated his counterpart on his appointment as foreign minister. "In your previous position, you were in charge of relations with the Russian Federation for almost a decade. We are quite sure that there will be continuity of these relations," he stated.
Lavrov emphasized that relations between Moscow and Hanoi represented a comprehensive strategic partnership. "We have maintained a busy political, economic and technological dialogue, investment ties and highly versatile humanitarian contacts," the foreign minister noted. "We have cooperated closely on the international arena, specifically in the Asia Pacific Region, where Vietnam is one of Russia’s main partners, including when it comes to UN operations," he mentioned.
According to Lavrov, the current negotiations are a very timely opportunity to address all fields of bilateral cooperation, including the assessments and tasks that were expressed during the phone conversation between the presidents of Russia and Vietnam on September 16, 2021.