Russian President to visit Vietnam
Ha Noi, Feb. 21 (VNA) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an official visit to Viet Nam from Feb. 28 to March 2, the Foreign Ministry has announced.
It will be the first visit to Viet Nam by a Russian President.
During the visit, both countries will sign a joint statement on the Viet Nam-Russia strategic partnership, a protocol for screening agreements between the two countries intended to renovate the legal basis for bilateral relations and a number of agreements for economic, scientific-technological, commercial and educational cooperation.
Viet Nam has cooperated with Russia in many fields, including security and defence and a treaty setting new principles for cooperation and more than 20 different cooperation documents have been signed since 1997.
Their most effective cooperation is with petroleum and energy.
They have agreed to expand their fields of operation and raise the efficiency of the Viet Nam-Russia petroleum joint venture, Vietsovpetro, by examning the possibilities for gas exploration, exhibition and processing.
They have also achieved unanimity as to how to boost cooperation in oil processing and quicken the construction of the Dzung Quat 6,000-tonne-per-year oil refinery in central Viet Nam, and Russia is supplying equipment to Viet Nam's Yaly and Ham Thuan-Da Mi hydro-electric power plants.
Viet Nam-Russia two-way trade turnover stands at about USD 450 million a year. Both countries are trying to complete their payment mechanism and to promote direct cooperation between localities of both so as to increase two-way trade.
Russia not only grants about 180 scholarships to Vietnamese students each year but also helps Viet Nam train experts in the mining and petroleum processing industries. Both countries have implemented 10 technology transfer contracts.
Both countries agreed to boost cooperation in agriculture, aquaculture, shipbuilding, transport and telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, education-training and tourism at the 7th session of the Viet Nam-Russia Inter-governmental Commission for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technological Cooperation last December.--VNA
