HANOI, December 26. /TASS/. Thanks to the partial restoration of direct flights between Russia and Vietnam after the COVID-19 pandemic, the flow of Russian tourists arriving in Vietnam has increased again and the Russian side expects it to further rise to the pre-pandemic level, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Gennady Bezdetko said at a press conference in Hanoi.

"Thanks to the partial resumption of direct flights by Aeroflot and Iraero, the flow of Russian tourists to Vietnam has increased once again. We expect to return to the pre-pandemic level, when the figure reached 650,000 people per year," the diplomat said.

The ambassador noted that in order to achieve this goal, the parties must also resolve issues related to the full restoration of direct air traffic between the two countries as soon as possible. "Our authorized companies agreed to resume direct flights between Moscow and Ho Chi Minh City. But our Vietnamese partners agreed only to a small part of the foreign aircraft offered by the Russian side and the Vietnamese carrier Vietnam Airlines, unfortunately, does not yet fly to Russia," the diplomat said.

"We hope that our Vietnamese partners will find a way to solve the current problems and resume flights to Russia, which are in great demand among people and business representatives of both countries," Bezdetko noted.