Abundant opportunities for Vietnam, Germany to promote ties

Hanoi (VNA) –  The Vietnam-Germany strategic partnership is growing across various fields, and there is room for both sides to further bolster the ties with many new opportunities, Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu Quang Minh has said.

Speaking with Vietnam News Agency on April 7 after presenting his credentials, the diplomat pointed out that during their telephone talks on March 31, Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz agreed to work harder together to further promote bilateral trust and cooperation in all fields, which is also a common wish of leaders and peoples of both sides.

Regarding bilateral partnership in politics, diplomacy, security-defence, Minh expressed his belief that the friendly and trustful relationship between the two countries will continue to be reinforced and promoted to become more practical and comprehensive.

He said that in the time to come, the two sides will work together to complete and implement a strategic plan of action for the 2022-2024 period, while increasing delegation exchanges after two years of interruption due to the COVID-19, and boosting the efficiency of consultation and cooperation mechanisms such as the strategic partnership at the deputy Foreign Minister level, the Joint Committee on economic cooperation, and governmental-level consultations on development cooperation, and dialogue on law-governed state.

The two countries will further strengthen parliamentarian cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral aspects, while promoting regular dialogues between the Communist Party of Vietnam and Germany’s ruling and political parties, he said.

The diplomat expressed his hope that Germany will play an increasingly important role in supporting and promoting sustainable development, prosperity, peace and stability as well as the upholding of international law in Asia-Pacific region and Southeast Asia, Mekong and East Sea in particular.

Ambassador Minh said that in the time to come, the Vietnamese Embassy will continue to conduct activities to connect and support the business communities of both sides to make full use of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, creating a breakthrough in bilateral trade and investment partnership. It will also work with authorities of both sides to speed up the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), while helping strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as vocational training, research, energy, digital transformation, climate change, agricultural processing, and health care.

The ambassador said he hopes more Vietnamese students will have chances to study in Germany, and that cultural and people-to-people exchange activities between the two countries will be increased and expanded, along with collaboration among localities.

The diplomat further said that more efforts will be made to form an organisation of the Vietnamese community in Germany for mutual support./.