HCM City celebrates Vietnam-Canada diplomatic relations

Addressing the event, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of External Affairs Nguyen Tuan noted that in recent years, along with regular meetings between senior leaders, Vietnam and Canada have increased the exchange of delegations and step up bilateral partnership, focusing on the areas of politics-diplomacy, economy-trade, education-training, and development cooperation.

Particularly, in 2017, within the official visit to Vietnam by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the two countries agreed to lift up bilateral ties to the level of comprehensive partnership, which is not only a milestone in their relations but also a motivation for the promotion of friendship, more extensive and effective cooperation, especially when they are sharing interests in bilateral, regional and international aspects, he said.

Tuan lauded the efforts of the Consulate General and community of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City in working with the city to organise various activities to foster people-to-people exchanges and raise public awareness of different issues such as environmental protection, climate change response, women and children empowerment, support for the disabled, and the fight against human trafficking.

Kyle Nunas, Canadian Consul General in HCM City highlighted strides in the bilateral partnership, especially in trade, investment, education-training, culture, and tourism. Visits by leaders of the two nations have opened up new cooperation prospects for the two countries in many fields, he said.

Nunas suggested that Vietnam and Canada should exert more efforts to realise cooperation activities, thus forging stronger affiliation in all fields.

Along with many multilateral organisations and international forums in which both countries are members, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is also a good chance for the two nations to promote economic cooperation, he added.

Currently, more than 250,000 Vietnamese Canadian and 14,000 Vietnamese students are living, working and studying in Canada. In 2017, trade revenue between the two countries reached nearly 5 billion USD. Vietnam is now the biggest trade partner of Canada among ASEAN countries, while Canada ranks 14th out of 112 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 149 projects worth 4.1 billion USD.