Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will pay a working visit to Russia from Dec. 14-15 with the aim of boosting multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.

Vietnam and Russia have developed fine traditional relations in many fields. The two sides have exchanged visits by high-ranking delegations, as well as delegations at ministerial, sectoral and local levels. The two countries established the strategic partnership during President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to Vietnam in 2001.

The official visit to Russia by State President Nguyen Minh Triet in October 2008 created a new momentum for the development of relations between the two countries.

Vietnam and Russia have shared numerous views on regional and international issues and supported each other at international forums, including the UN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

Economic, trade and investment relations between the two sides have developed steadily over recent years.

Two-way trade was between 350-400 million USD in the mid 1990s and increased to over 1 billion USD in 2007.

Vietnam exports seafood, garment, rubber and footwear to Russia and imports coal, steel, fertilizer and petroleum from the latter.

In 2008, two-way trade between the two countries reached 1.6 billion USD, including 671 million USD in Vietnam ’s export turnover.

In investment, Russia now has 55 projects valued at 302.9 million USD, ranking 23 rd among 81 foreign investors in Vietnam .

Oil and gas, and energy are traditional cooperation fields, which have brought in huge revenues for state budgets of the two countries. The two sides have signed a protocol to turn the Vietnam-Russia Oil and Gas Joint Venture (Vietsovpetro) into two-member limited liability company after 2010. They will expand their in oil and gas cooperation to third countries in the future.

Additionally, Russian has continued cooperate with Vietnam in upgrading and building energy projects.

Russian gas group GAZPROM is expanding its cooperative ties with the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).

During the visit by Prime Minister Dung, the two sides plan to sign several important cooperation documents, including an agreement to set up a joint venture between GAZPROM and PetroVietnam in Russia and a cooperation agreement between the Electricity of Vietnam and the Russia Electricity Group and the launching of the Vietnam-Russia Joint Venture Bank.

Cooperation in science and technology, education and training and tourism has been strengthened, while that in culture has been resumed.

Activities of cultural exchanges between the two countries took place effervescently.

Russian has made great contributions to human resource training for Vietnam . It provides over 250 scholarships annually to Vietnamese students to study in Russia . Moreover, Vietnamese students, who pay themselves for studying in Russia number more than 5,000./.