Celebrations for 50th anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties launched hinh anh 1At the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA)National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and visiting President of the French Senate Gérard Larcher co-hosted a ceremony in Hanoi on December 8 to launch activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties next year.

In his speech, Chairman Hue expressed his delight at the growing ties between Vietnam and France across politics, economy, culture, education, national defence, sci-tech, healthcare and people-to-people exchange over the past five decades, especially since the establishment of their bilateral strategic partnership in September 2013.

According to Hue, France has become an important development partner for ASEAN, and the bloc itself upgraded ties with the EU to a strategic partnership in 2020 which acted as important groundwork to lifting Vietnam-France ties to a greater height.

He said that on the back of bilateral ties over the past five decades and the political determination of the two countries’ leaders, Vietnam and France will further deepen their strategic partnership in a more substantive manner.

Larcher, for his part, reviewed cooperation in economy, climate change response, tertiary education, heritage preservation, and security.

He described people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges as an important part of the bilateral relationship. At present, over 300,000 Vietnamese are living in France.

Later, the two leaders unveiled the logo for the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties./. 

VNA