Czech Senate President appreciates Vietnam’s potential, position

Prague (VNA) - President of the Czech Senate Miloš Vystrčil appreciated Vietnam’s economic potential and increasing position in the region while receiving Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Hoai Nam in Prague on April 16 (local time).

The policy of developing relations with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, has received due attention and actively implemented by Czech senior leaders to meet the aspirations and need for stronger cooperation between the two countries, in accordance with the European Union's Indo-Pacific Strategy, Vystrčil said.  

The Senate President expressed his desire to develop bilateral parliamentary relations, emphasising the need for coordination and mutual support at regional and multilateral inter-parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP). He agreed that there should be a document on the direction of cooperation between the two countries' parliaments in the coming time, including the consideration of the possibility of establishing a cooperation and information exchange mechanism between their specialised agencies and the friendship parliamentarians’ groups of the two countries.

In order to promote cooperation in economics, trade, tourism, education and training, labour, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, the two sides need to take advantage of the support of their senior leaders to soon open a direct air route between Hanoi and Prague, he said.

He assessed the success of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic as a model of foreign communities' capacity for rapid integration and practical contributions to the Czech Republic’s socio-economic development.

For his part, Nam affirmed that Vietnam always wishes to further deepen its traditional friendship and cooperation with the Czech Republic towards the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations (1950 - 2025). He said that maintaining delegation exchanges at all levels, especially high-level visits, will contribute to strengthening political trust and mutual understanding, thus bringing the bilateral relations to a new height.

There remains ample room for bilateral collaboration in defence industry, mechanical manufacturing, mining, education - training, tourism and agriculture, he noted, proposing the Senate President help promote cooperation in specific fields such as labour, signing a cooperation agreement on education for a new period, and establishing a Vietnamese cultural centre in the Czech Republic.

There are currently nearly 100,000 Vietnamese people living in the Czech Republic./.