Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, onMarch 16, sent a congratulatory message to Angela Merkel on her re-election as Chancellor of Germany.
Merkel has held the post for the fourth consecutive term.
The same day, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign MinisterPham Binh Minh cabled his congratulations to Heiko Maas, who has just become ForeignMinister of Germany.
Vietnam and Germany established diplomatic relations in 1975and a strategic partnership in 2011.
Germany is Vietnam’s top trade partner in the EU, withtwo-way trade hitting 9 billion USD in 2016, or 20 percent of Vietnam-EU trade.
Since the Goethe Institute opened in Hanoi in1997, bilateral cultural exchanges have been strengthened, with more than100,000 Vietnamese graduating from German universities.-VNA