NA leader’s visit hoped to accelerate partnership with France
National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan’s visit to France, made at the invitation of President of the National Assembly of France Richard Ferrand, is the first official one by a NA leader of Vietnam after 11 years, aiming to accelerate the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.
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| Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (L) shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron during his France visit in March 2018 |
Vietnam and France set up diplomatic relations in April, 1973. The two sides signed a Joint Statement on establishing strategic partnership in 2013 during the visit of then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The sound political relations between the two countries have been marked by high-level meetings, including the 2016 visit of French President Francois Hollande, and the 2018 visit of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
The two sides have maintained many cooperation mechanisms, including defence-security strategic dialogue and an annual high-level economic dialogue.
Parliamentary partnership has been growing with regular delegation exchanges and collaboration at multilateral parliamentary forums, especially the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
The NA of Vietnam has signed agreements with the Senate and National Assembly of France. The two parliaments have set up bilateral friendship parliamentarian groups.
France is the fourth largest trade partner of Vietnam in Europe after Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. The country made a two-way trade value of 5.1 billion USD with Vietnam in 2018, ranking third among European countries. It is the 16th biggest investor of Vietnam with total investment of 2.8 billion USD, and the leading European ODA provider with total committed capital of 3 billion EUR.
Education-training partnership between the two countries has developed since early 1980s as France has considered education-training a priority in its cooperation with Vietnam, focusing in teaching and popularizing French, tertiary education and post-graduate education in economy, banking, finance, law and new technology.
They have seen progresses in affiliation in science-technology, security-defence, locality-to-locality cooperation, and health care.
As members of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF), Vietnam and France have made many collaboration activities within the organisation’s framework.
The visit of NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan is taking place when the two countries are to organise the 11th conference of cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities.
The visit is expected to promote bilateral cooperation in all fields, making the Vietnam-France strategic partnership more practical. It is hoped to help realize the outcomes of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s past visit and materialize the bilateral joint statement on parliamentary cooperation.