Egyptian President’s visit to mark new milestone in bilateral ties

Hanoi (VNA) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s visit to Vietnam is considered an important milestone in Vietnam-Egypt cooperation, which is expected to boost the traditional partnership between the two countries in all fields.

The visit on September 6-7 at the invitation of President Tran Dai Quang, will be the first made by a State leader of Egypt to Vietnam since the two countries set up their diplomatic relations on September 1, 1963.

Egypt was one of the first Arabian countries that formed relations with Vietnam. Vietnam opened a trade representative office in Egypt in 1958, and its embassy in Cairo in 1963. In 1964, Egypt launched its embassy in Hanoi.

Over the past years, Egypt has highly valued Vietnam’s stance to issues related to the Arabian world, especially the Middle East peace process.

The Egyptian government has supported Vietnam in the evacuations of workers in Libya in 2011 and 2014. The two sides have coordinated closely and supported each other at international forums, while sharing viewpoints on various issues at the United Nations.

At the eighth political consultations at Deputy Foreign Ministerial level in Cairo in May 2015, Egypt committed to giving technical assistance to Vietnam so the country could be able to issue Halal certificates of food for Islamic markets.

Egypt has been the second largest trade partner of Vietnam in Africa, with two-way trade hitting 316 million USD in 2016. Vietnam exported seafood, automobile spare parts, fabric, black peppercorn, coffee, rubber and other consumer goods to Egypt and imported mainly chemicals, oil products, milk and dairy products, and fibres.

Egypt was the first North African country to recognise Vietnam’s full market economy in November 2013. The country is running two projects in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh and Khanh Hoa provinces with a combined capital of 750,000 USD.

The Egyptian Government annually offered 12 scholarships in Arabian language to Vietnam. The two sides have regularly exchanged information in inspection and culture. The Vietnam-Egypt Friendship Parliamentarian Group was set up.

The visit of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is hoped to make bilateral cooperation grow more effectively and extensively, while creating cooperation opportunities in trade, agriculture, culture and tourism. The two sides will also discuss regional and international issues of shared concern.-VNA