Q: From September 30 - October 7, Party General Secretary and State President To Lam will pay State visits to Mongolia and Ireland as well as attend the 19th Francophonie Summit and make an official visit to France. Could you please share about purpose and significance of this working trip?
A: The working trip of the General Secretary and President aims to reaffirm the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, diversification, proactiveness and activeness in comprehensive and extensive international integration, while also demonstrating the high regard of the Party and State of Vietnam for the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Mongolia, the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Ireland, the Vietnam-France strategic partnership, and the desire to elevate and deepen cooperation frameworks in line with the new situation and the interests of the countries.
The state visit to Mongolia is of special significance as it takes place on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, with the relationship between the two countries at its best stage of development. General Secretary and President To Lam will hold discussions with senior leaders of Mongolia on major orientations and important measures to further strengthen political trust and enhance cooperation in many priority areas of both sides, especially political, diplomatic, economic, trade, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.
For Ireland, this is the first state visit since the two sides established diplomatic relations. Ireland is a nation with many similarities with Vietnam in terms of history and tradition of patriotism, the will to rise up, and diverse and unique culture. The two sides have much room and potential to strengthen cooperation and develop together. Senior leaders of the two sides will discuss measures to promote extensive cooperation in many areas in which Vietnam has demand and Ireland has strengths, such as high-quality investment, science, technology, innovation, digital transformation, energy transformation, and education and training, especially higher education.
With France, on the basis of the special relationship, and the results of the strategic partnership over the past 10 years, the leaders of the two sides will also discuss measures to bring the strategic partnership to a new level, increasingly in-depth, practical, commensurate with the potential and position of both countries in the region and the world; strengthen trade and investment cooperation; promote traditional cooperation areas such as culture, education, science and technology, cooperation between localities; and expand cooperation in new, potential areas such as aerospace, renewable energy, high technology, digital economy, etc.
Through the working trip, Vietnam will continue to strengthen coordination with countries in solving regional and global issues; mobilise countries to continue to pay attention, create conditions for the Vietnamese community to integrate more deeply into local life, promote the role of a bridge, and contribute to the friendly relations between Vietnam and other countries.
General Secretary and President To Lam and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation will also attend the 19th Francophone Summit. This is the first time the General Secretary and President has attended the Francophone Summit and will deliver a keynote speech at the Summit, contributing to spreading the message of a proactive, positive, responsible Vietnam that is always ready to join hands with the international community to respond to challenges, contributing to a future of "peace, friendship, solidarity and sustainable development", as the goal of the Francophone Summit.
Q: Could you tell us about the positive developments in the bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Mongolia, Ireland, and France; as well as Vietnam's contributions to the International Organisation of the Francophone (OIF) in recent times?
A: The working trip of General Secretary and President To Lam is taking place in the context that Vietnam's relations with Mongolia, Ireland, France, and the Francophone community are continuing to develop positively while achieving many good results.
Mongolia is a country that strongly and deeply supports Vietnam both materially and spiritually in the movement for national independence and liberation. Today, the two countries regularly help and support each other in the process of protecting, building, and developing the country, maintaining close cooperation on Party, State, and Government channels and people-to-people exchanges. Cooperation in various fields has been actively implemented by the two countries and achieved many substantive results.
Ireland is currently Vietnam's 6th largest trading partner in the EU market and has a preferential policy for Vietnam as one of two Asian countries receiving development aid, focusing on the fields of education, gender equality, climate change response, support for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, and support for mine clearance.
To date, Ireland has granted about 250 scholarships to Vietnamese students and researchers through the Ireland Fellows Programme implemented since 2009. In addition, the two countries are continuing to promote the implementation of the memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland.
With France, in the 50 years since establishing diplomatic relations and 10 years since upgrading to a strategic partnership, political trust between the two countries has been increasingly consolidated. Most recently, for the first time, a French Minister of the Armed Forces attended the 70th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory, affirming his desire to join Vietnam in "putting the past behind and looking towards the future", for peace, cooperation, and development.
As one of Vietnam's leading European partners in tourism, trade, investment, and ODA, France is participating in many projects contributing to the development, modernisation, improvement of the quality and living environment of the Vietnamese people, such as the Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station Urban Railway Project, climate change response projects in the Mekong Delta, etc.
Vietnam - Francophone cooperation continues to develop well. The Francophone community always considers Vietnam a model of socio-economic development, the centre of Francophone cooperation activities in the region. For its part, Vietnam is one of the members strongly promoting the economic pillar, especially the digital economy in the Francophone space.
With 88 member countries and territories, a population of about 1.2 billion people, accounting for 16% of GDP and 20% of global trade, the Francophone economic space still has a lot of room for Vietnam to promote extensive cooperation, especially in the fields of economics, trade, investment, education and training, agriculture, sustainable tourism, science, technology, etc.
Vietnam is one of the members strongly promoting the economic pillars, especially the digital economy in the Francophone space.
With these positive developments, I believe that the working trip of General Secretary, President To Lam and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation will be crowned a success and achieve many important results, contributing to firmly consolidating the foundations and bases in Vietnam's relations with Mongolia, Ireland, France, and the Francophone community; at the same time, we will explore new areas and potentials in cooperation with each country, contributing to deepening relations with other countries, while making them more practical, effective, and suitable to the new situation.
