French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Photo: AFP) Hanoi (VNA) – French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will pay anofficial visit to Vietnam from November 2-4 at the invitation of Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in astatement.
Vietnam and France set updiplomatic ties on April 12, 1973. Overcoming ups and downs in history, over the past 45years, especially since the establishmentof the strategic partnership in 2013, Vietnam-France relations have developed well.
In the pastyears, both sides have maintained the exchange of high-level delegations. Particularly,a visit to France by General Secretary of the Communist Party of VietnamCentral Committee Nguyen Phu Trong in March 2018 has created a strong drivingforce for the development of bilateral ties in the fields of politics, economy,culture, education, healthcare and national defence.
During thevisit, made at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the two sides signed a series of important cooperation documents on defence, justice, spacetechnology, intellectual property, climate change response and tourism, alongwith economic contracts worth tens of billions of USD.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and France have seen positive growth, with Vietnam having enjoyed continuous trade surplussince 2010, reported the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In 2017, the two-way trade value exceeded 4.6 billion USD, up 11.6 percentfrom 2016. The figure included 3.3 billionUSD worth of Vietnamese exports to France and 1.3 billion USD worth of imports from the European country, bothincreasing by over 11 percent year on year.
France isan important European partner of Vietnam. It also respects Vietnam’s stature and contributions to peace, stability anddevelopment in the region and the world.
Vietnam’s membership of the ASEAN Economic Community and many free tradeagreements, including the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), expected to take effect in the near future,will bring new cooperation chances forboth countries.-VNA
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