A performance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam-Italy diplomatic relations in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: VNA) Talking to Vietnam News Agency reporters in Rome, Hung highlighted that this is President Thuong’s first State visit to a member country of the Group of Seven (G7) and a strategic partner of Vietnam, at an invitation of his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella.
The visit is taking place in the context that the bilateral friendship and strategic partnership is developing at a top rate in all fields, on both bilateral and multilateral channels.
The visit is also a special event to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, contributing to opening new opportunities for the Strategic Partnership between the two countries to develop further in the coming decades, said the diplomat.
During his trip, President Thuong is scheduled to hold talks with the Italian President; meet with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, and President of the Chamber of Deputies Lorenzo Fontana, among others.
He will attend a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and meet representatives of the Vietnamese community in the European country.
The Vietnamese State leader will also visit the Vatican, meet with Pope Francis and the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said Hung.
The ambassador affirmed that leaders of the two countries have paid attention to consolidating and developing bilateral relations, reflected through regular high-level and all-level visits.
Vietnam is Italy's largest trading partner in ASEAN and Italy is Vietnam's third biggest EU partner. Last year, despite many fluctuations and difficulties, two-way trade reached an all-time high of 6.2 billion USD, up 11% year-on-year. The Italian government has put Vietnam in the list of 20 countries that it will continue to give priority to in promoting trade and investment to 2030.
Regarding potential for bilateral relations, Ambassador Hung said the outlook is very bright for the two long-term partners.
The time-tested bilateral friendship and solidarity, stable political relations, concern and support between senior leaders of the two countries, and high mutual trust are favourable conditions for the development of comprehensive cooperation in all fields, he highlighted.
The economies of the two countries are both similar and complementary to each other in terms of industries and products, thus bringing great added value as cooperation is intensified. Recently, Italy's increasing interest in the Indo-Pacific region in general, and ASEAN and Vietnam in particular has become clearer.
Italian businesses have shown increasing interest in cooperation in investment and trade with Vietnam - a partner with strengths in terms of a young workforce, competitive costs, a large consumption market, a dynamic business environment, and improved infrastructure.
In addition to traditional fields, the two sides have prospects for cooperation in new fields such as digital transformation, green economy, renewable energy, especially in the implementation of commitments under the Just Energy Transition Partnership to which Italy has pledged to contribute 500 million USD, according to the diplomat.
Collaboration in culture, education, science-technology, justice, tourism, sports, as well as people-to-people exchanges and local partnership continues to expand while bilateral ties in national defence, security, press, and theoretical and strategic research have also seen new developments./.
VNA
