PM chairs official welcome ceremony for Czech counterpart

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) welcomes Prime Minister Petr Fiala. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on April 21 morning hosted an official welcome ceremony for his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala who is on an official visit to Vietnam from April 20-22.

After the welcome ceremony, the two PMs held talks.

As scheduled, the Czech government leader will also witness the signing of bilateral cooperation pacts, pay a courtesy call to President Vo Van Thuong, and attend a Vietnam-Czech Republic business forum.

The trip is the first to Asia by PM Petr Fiala since taking office at the end of 2021 and the first of a head of the Czech Government to Vietnam in 15 years.

Given the sound growth of the countries’ traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation, the visit reflects the Vietnamese and Czech leaders' appreciation of and desire to strengthen the bilateral relations.

Hanoi children welcome PM Petr Fiala. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam and the Czech Republic set up their diplomatic ties on February 2, 1950. Since then, the Czech Republic has always implemented a policy of developing cooperative relations with Vietnam in all fields.

Two-way trade reached 848 million USD in 2022, up 15% year-on-year. The Czech Republic has 41 FDI projects in Vietnam with a total capital of 92 million USD, mainly in the processing, manufacturing and mining. It was the first Eastern European country to provide ODA to Vietnam, with about 20 million USD in total.

Currently, there are nearly 100,000 Vietnamese people living in the Czech Republic. On July 3, 2013, the Czech Government decided to add Vietnamese-Czech people to its Council of Ethnic Minorities, thereby recognising Vietnamese-Czech people as an ethnic minority group in the country./.

VNA