He wasaccompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham BinhMinh, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, several ministers and leaders ofa number of provinces.
The visit is to foster thebilateral strategic partnership across politics, nationaldefence-security, economics, trade, investment and labour as well asboost affiliation at regional and sub-regional cooperative mechanisms.
Since the two countries established diplomatic tieson August 6, 1976, the relationship has developed comprehensively. In2013, during Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit toThailand, it was upgraded to a strategic partnership. Vietnam andThailand already signed an action plan to implement the Vietnam-Thailandstrategic partnership from 2014-2018 in all cooperation fields.
The two countries signed a memorandum ofunderstanding on defence cooperation during the Thai Defence MinisterPrawit Wongsuwon’s visit to Vietnam and shared experience in fightingtransnational crime, drug crime, hi-tech crime and human trafficking.
In addition, Vietnam and Thailandalso stepped up cooperation in education-training and culture. Thailandmade it possible for Vietnam to build two monuments commemoratingPresident Ho Chi Minh in U Don Thani and Nakhon Phanom provinces.
They increased cooperation in developingthe East-West economic corridor, opened air routes between the twocountries and are negotiating bus routes connecting the two countriesvia Laos and Cambodia.
The two countries agreed to extend cooperation in agriculture-forestry-fishery and science-technology.
Tradebetween the two countries reached 10.6 billion USD in 2014 and 4.35billion USD in the first five months of 2015. As of June 2015, Thailandhas been ranked the 10th largest investor among 101 territories andcountries investing in Vietnam, with 392 valid projects and a combinedregistered investment capital of 6.8 billion USD.-VNA