Party chief begins State visit to Myanmar

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong welcomed by Vietnamese Embassy staff at the airport (Source: VNA)

Nay Pyi Taw (VNA) – Party General SecretaryNguyen Phu Trong arrived in Nay Pyi Taw International Airport on August 24,starting his three-day State visit to Myanmar at the invitation of PresidentHtin Kyaw.

He was welcomed at the airport by Myanmar’s Minister of Transportand Communications Thant Sin Maung and other Myanmar officials.

This is the first visit of a Vietnamese Party GeneralSecretary to Myanmar after the visit of Party General Secretary Do Muoi in1997.

It aims to establish a more specific cooperation frameworkto create a breakthrough for the bilateral relations, especially in the fieldsof trade, investment, security and defence.

Vietnam and Myanmar established diplomatic ties four decadesago. Trade between the two nations hit 536 million USD last year, exceedingtheir target and making Vietnam the ninth largest trade partner of Myanmar.

Two-way trade rose by 48 percent to 250.2 million USD in the first four monthsof 2017 with Vietnam enjoying a trade surplus of 133.3 million USD. Vietnamgoods were worth 191.7 million USD in the period, up 29 percent year-on-year,while imports almost tripled to 58.5 million USD.-VNA

VNA