Hanoi (VNA) – A ceremony was held in Hanoi onFebruary 20 to welcome President of Argentina Mauricio Macri and his spouse,who are paying a State visit to Vietnam from February 19-21 to deepen the tiesbetween the two countries.
Party General Secretary and President Nguyen PhuTrong and his wife chaired the event which was attended by Deputy PrimeMinister Vu Duc Dam, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien,and Chairman of the Presidential Office Dao Viet Trung, along with leaders ofministries, departments, and centrally-run agencies.
This is the first visit to Vietnam by Macri asPresident of Argentina. It will be an important milestone in the bilateralrelationship, especially after the two countries celebrated the 45thanniversary of their diplomatic ties last year.
The three-day trip, which comes at theinvitation of President Trong, also demonstrates the importance of Vietnam inArgentina’s external policy towards Asia and Southeast Asia in particular,especially after the Latin American nation signed the Treaty of Amity andCooperation (TAC) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) inAugust 2018.
Vietnam and Argentina established diplomaticties on October 25, 1973.
The countries have established numerousmechanisms to boost cooperation. They have also signed various agreements toencourage investment, economic cooperation, scientific-technological ties,cultural-educational relations and collaboration in the use of nuclear energyfor peaceful purposes.
Vietnam and Argentina have also supported eachother at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, the World TradeOrganisation, the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) andthe South-South Cooperation within the UN framework.
Two-way trade increased from 1.4 billion USD in2013 to 2.9 billion USD last year — the highest figure between Argentina andany Southeast Asian country.
Argentina is Vietnam’s second largest tradepartner in Latin America, while Vietnam is its fifth biggest import marketglobally. The two sides are working to raise bilateral trade to 5 billionUSD.-VNA
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