Vietnam aspires to advance all-around ties with Armenia

Welcoming  Alen Simonyan and his delegation's official visit to Vietnam, NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasized that this is the first visit by by a top legislator of Armenia, after the two countries established their diplomatic ties more than 30 years ago.

The two countries have continuously strengthened political and diplomatic relations, as well as multifaceted cooperation across multiple fields in recent times, Alen Simonyan told his host, while expecting that both sides to discus issues of shared concern in an effort to establish joint working groups and ramp up cooperation in areas such as trade, economics, science and technology, education, and tourism.

He also highlighted huge potential for stronger bilateral collaboration and expressed a desire to bolster cooperation in such areas as defence and technology, while suggesting the two countries strengthen mutual support at international forums.

The host leader showed his elation at the positive developments of the bilateral relations across all areas in recent times, demonstrated through the promotion of high-level delegation exchanges and meetings.

In addition, bilateral economic and trade cooperation has been boosted, with two-way trade hitting close to US$424 million during the past ten months of this year, representing a year-on-year rise of 28.9%. Armenia has also run a number of investment projects in Vietnam, while the latter incentivizes its businesses to invest in the former, particularly in the areas where there is a competitive advantage, including agriculture, food processing, and textiles.

Sharing the Armenian legislator’s view on the ample room for bilateral collaboration, Man suggested Armenia continue to intensify all-level delegation exchanges, and effectively implement existing cooperation mechanisms and agreements, thereby consolidating mutual political trust. He also underlined the importance of accelerating the implementation of the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free Trade Agreement to generate remarkable breakthroughs in bilateral economic and trade collaboration.

The Vietnamese NA leader asked the two sides to increase the sharing of information on the issues of shared concerns as well as their foreign policies, urging continued effective cooperation at regional forums. He called for Armenia’s support for ASEAN's and Vietnam's stance on the East Sea issue, and on settling disputes through peaceful means, based on international law, the United Nations Charter, and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, particularly matters related to peace, stability, and sustainable development.

Host and guest reached a consensus on providing scholarships for students of the two countries and regularly organising cultural exchanges, and consented to encourage relevant agencies to consider visa incentives to facilitate citizens’ travel.

Concerning the Armenian NA delegation's trip to the northern province of Ninh Binh, Man underlined the importance of augmenting cooperation between the two countries’ localities. He proposed local authorities from both sides move forward with signing memoranda of understanding on sister city partnerships to push up cooperation in the areas where they have potential, particularly tourism.

The two sides stated that they are considering the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two legislatures to establish a legal framework that will further boost and deepen parliamentary cooperation, contributing to building political trust and mutual understanding, and fostering the fine friendship and collaboration between Vietnam and Armenia.

The host proposed advancing the role of the legislative bodies in propelling the bilateral relations forward, particularly in supervising the implementation of international treaties and cooperation agreements between the two governments, and supporting the business communities and citizens living, investing, and doing business in respective countries.  He also called for closer coordination at multilateral forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APF).

He used this occasion to congratulate Armenia on successfully hosting the 10th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in September 2024, and invite the Armenian National Assembly to send a high-level delegation to the parliamentary forum on Francophone cooperation in sustainable agriculture, food security, and climate change, which will be hosted by the Vietnamese NA in January 2025.