Italian President hosts farewell ceremony for Vietnamese counterpart

The hosting of welcome and farewell ceremonies by the Italian leader and his daughter, alongside a national banquet for the Vietnamese President and his entourage, high-level talks and meetings between the two countries’ leaders demonstrate the special importance the Italian State and people attach to the Vietnam-Italy traditional relations as well as Thuong’s visit.

The Vietnamese State leader’s three-day State visit took place in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership.

Vietnam and Italy have maintained many bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the annual strategic dialogue at the deputy foreign ministerial level and the defence policy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level, as well as the Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation and Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation.

The Southeast Asian nation remains one of the 10 emerging countries prioritised for trade and investment cooperation development by Italy until 2030. Both nations have created favourable conditions for their businesses to cooperate in areas of Italy’s strength and Vietnam’s demand such as mechanical engineering, infrastructure, garment and textiles, footwear, wood processing, supporting industries, building materials, oil and gas, renewable energy, and food processing.

Vietnam is currently Italy's largest trading partner in ASEAN, with last year’s two-way trade reaching US$ 6.2 billion, up 11% on-year , according to the Vietnam Customs. Vietnam's exports to Italy last year hit US$4.4 billion, up 14% over the previous year, and its imports from the South European nation totaled US$1.7 billion, up 3.6%.

In the first four months of 2023, two-way trade hit US$2 billion, down 2.7% from the same period last year, in which exports dropped by 3%.