President of Italy Sergio Mattarella. (Photo: Reuters) Hanoi (VNA) – President of Italy Sergio Mattarella begins his four-day visit to Vietnam on November 5 at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang.
It is the first visit to Vietnam by an Italian President since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1973.
The visit aims to boost the Italy-Vietnam strategic partnership across politics, foreign affairs, economics, security-defence, culture, education, science-technology, and tourism.
The visit is also expected to open more doors for Italian investment to Vietnam and enhance bilateral cooperation between the two sides at multilateral forums, international organisations
Talks on global and regional issues of mutual interests are also scheduled during the visit.
Vietnam and Italy upgraded their relations to a strategic partnership in 2013 when the two nations celebrated the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.
Italy is now one of Vietnam’s important trade partners in the European Union, standing third in terms of imports and fifth in exports. Two-way trade hit 4.1 billion USD last year.-VNA
