Egypt always plays an important role in Vietnam’s foreign policy, a senior Vietnamese diplomat has said.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Egypt Dao Thanh Chung has made the affirmation in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency’s correspondents on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries (September 1, 1963 - September 1, 2013). The ambassador reviewed the development of the Vietnam-Egypt relations over the five decades. He said that solidarity and traditional relations between the two countries have been reinforced and attained many important achievements. Especially, since 1991, bilateral relations have entered a new period and developed in various fields, from politics, economics, socio-culture, scien-technology to education-training, tourism and investment. The two sides have signed many cooperative agreements and established an intergovernmental committee in order to boost bilateral relations, Chung said. He added that economic cooperation has also seen a strong development. Two-way trade between the two sides reached more than 304 million USD in 2012, making Egypt Vietnam’s second largest market in the Middle East-North Africa region. Under the agreement on investment encouragement and protection, Egypt and Vietnam have discussed measures to foster investment between the two nations in the fields of oil and gas and telecommunications. The two sides also reached agreements to boost cooperation in aquaculture, farm processing, veterinary medicine and plant protection products production. Chung also said he believes that potential for cooperation between the two countries remains huge and that bilateral relations will develop comprehensively and intensively. He also expressed his hope that Egypt will soon overcome difficulties and challenges, to carry out economic reforms and improve its people’s living conditions.-VNA
