At the talks, President Ilham Aliyev warmly welcomed Party General Secretary To Lam, his spouse, and high-level Vietnamese delegation on their state visit to Azerbaijan. This marks the first visit by a General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992. He expressed confidence that the visit would create strong momentum for expanding bilateral cooperation across a variety of fields for the benefit and prosperity of both nations.

Recalling his deep impressions from his 2014 visit to Vietnam, including the country’s natural beauty, the hospitality of its people, and its dynamic development and growing international profile, President Aliyev congratulated Vietnam on its remarkable and steady progress. He affirmed that the country is on the right path in socio-economic development.

The Vietnamese Party leader expressed his pleasure at visiting the beautiful and prosperous country of Azerbaijan. He congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on Azerbaijan’s important achievements in national development, social welfare, and enhanced regional and international standing under his leadership.

He affirmed that Vietnam always values the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Azerbaijan, which was founded on President Ho Chi Minh’s visit to the country in 1959 and has been strengthened through high-level exchanges over the years. Vietnam considers Azerbaijan a key partner in the region and hopes bilateral ties will continue to flourish. He also expressed sincere gratitude for the valuable support of the Azerbaijani people during Vietnam’s struggle for national liberation and unification, as well as in its current development efforts.

The two leaders noted with satisfaction that more than 30 years after establishing diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Azerbaijan have achieved many important results. Political and diplomatic relations have been maintained and consolidated; cooperation in energy has advanced; and there remains considerable potential for expanding cooperation in defence and security, trade, investment, and education and training.

To fully tap this untapped potential and overcome the challenges of a rapidly changing global landscape, General Secretary To Lam proposed five solutions to promote substantive, effective, and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

These include enhancing the coordinating role of the Intergovernmental Committee on Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation to promote joint work in new areas such as processing industries, mechanical engineering, and chemicals; boosting co-operation in energy and oil and gas; increasing information exchange and investment opportunities, training human resources, and exploring cooperation in clean and renewable energy; encouraging businesses to share information, build connections, and invest in each other's markets; advancing agricultural investment and expediting the signing of agreements on investment encouragement and protection; and leveraging the two countries’ strengths in maritime and railway transport while stepping up locality-to-locality cooperation.

President Ilham Aliyev affirmed his commitment to directing efforts to reinforce comprehensive relations, particularly in trade, investment, and economic cooperation. With its strategic geographic location, Azerbaijan hopes to partner with Vietnam in logistics, seaports, railways, aviation, and renewable energy. He expressed his wish to attract Vietnamese businesses to operate in Azerbaijan and pledged to offer favorable conditions for their investment and business activities.

Pleased with recent positive developments in bilateral ties, the two leaders agreed to intensify exchanges and meetings at all levels, especially high-level visits, as well as exchanges between ministries, sectors, and localities, to strengthen political trust. They also pledged to implement the cooperation agreement between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, chaired by President Ilham Aliyev, through delegation exchanges, information sharing, experience exchange, and collaboration at multilateral inter-party forums.

They also discussed and agreed on major directions and measures to augment cooperation in trade, energy, defence, security, education and training, culture, and people-to-people exchange.

Host and guest stressed the historic significance of adopting a Joint Statement on the establishment of the Vietnam–Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership during this visit. The statement serves as a foundation for significantly strengthening bilateral ties in the coming period, capitalizing on each country’s strengths to boost development in the new era for the benefit of both peoples and for peace, stability, and development in the region and the world.

On regional and international issues of shared concern, the two leaders consented to continue coordination at multilateral forums, particularly the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

They affirmed Vietnam’s readiness to serve as a bridge to help Azerbaijan strengthen ties with Southeast Asian countries, while Azerbaijan will support Vietnam’s efforts to bolster cooperation with Central Asia.

They underscored the importance of resolving disputes and differences by peaceful means in accordance with international law and the UN Charter. Both sides also voiced support for ASEAN’s stance on the East Sea issue, in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Following the talks, General Secretary To Lam and President Ilham Aliyev witnessed the signing of cooperation documents and adopted the Joint Statement on establishing the Vietnam–Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership, marking the comprehensive achievements of this official visit.

Vietnam-Azerbaijan relations expected to reach new heights: diplomat

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Vietnam Shovgi Kamal Oglu Mehdizade has expressed his hope that the upcoming state visit to Azerbaijan by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee To Lam will mark a new chapter in strengthening the relations between the two countries.