The agency quoted President Lukashenko as sayingthat Belarus considers developing ties with Vietnam one of thepriorities in its foreign policy in Asia and wishes to bring bilateralrelations to a new level of development.
As a member of theCustoms Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan , Belarus will workto accelerate the negotiations for the early signing of a Free TradeAgreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Union , he said.
Thesigning of the agreement was also covered by the Belgian press onNovember 25-26. The Euro Presse Images website ( www.epi-agency.com) quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying that negotiationsfor the deal are going to be concluded and Vietnam is likely to be thefirst country that Russia will sign with.
Russia now ranks19 th among 100 countries and territories investing in Vietnam .Once the FTA is reached, Russia will triple its trade with Vietnamto 10 billion USD in 2015.
“Le Soir” and “La Bibre”, two Frenchdailies of Belgium , stressed Putin’s statement that Moscow andHanoi have agreed to facilitate the entry of Vietnamese farm produceinto the Russian market. The formation of a free trade zone between theCustoms Union and Vietnam will help push bilateral cooperationforward.
The Belgian press also praised collaboration between theVietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Russia ’sZarubezhneft and Gazprom Neft set up during General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong’s visit.-VNA