Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and his Luxembourg counterpart Xavier Bettel review the guard of honour. (Photo: VNA) After the ceremony, the two PMs heldtalks. They are expected to witness the signing of some cooperation agreementsbetween their countries’ ministries and sectors and meet with the press toinform them of their talks’ outcomes.
Prior to the ceremony, the Luxembourg leader paid respect tolate Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum and visited the monument to Vietnameseheroes and martyrs and the memorial site dedicated to President Ho Chi Minh inHanoi.
He and Chinh will also visit the Temple of Literature andthe Vietnam Fine Arts Museum.
In addition, PM Bettel will meet with National AssemblyChairman Vuong Dinh Hue and take part in some activities in Ho Chi Minh City,including a Vietnam - Luxembourg business forum and a meeting with the city’sleaders.
This is Xavier Bettel's first official visit outside Europe in 2023, and the first by a Luxembourg PM to Vietnam in over 20 years. Thevisit, which comes just five months after PM Chinh’s official visit to Luxembourgin December 2022, is also the first high-level diplomatic activity on theoccasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations betweenVietnam and Luxembourg.
Vietnam and Luxembourg set up diplomatic ties on November15, 1973. As of March 2023, Luxembourg had invested 2.6 billion USD in 64projects in Vietnam, ranking third among the 24 EU members and 17th among the 139countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.
In 2022, bilateral trade stood at 187.1 million USD, rising69% year on year. The figure included 130.14 million USD worth of Vietnam’sexports and 56.96 million USD worth of imports from Luxembourg.
During PM Chinh’s official visit to Luxembourg in December 2022, the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding on promoting tradeand business dialogue between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under theMinistry of Industry and Trade and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, alongwith a cooperation deal between the Vietnam Stock Exchange and the LuxembourgStock Exchange./.
VNA
