Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said so during his talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on November 30.
According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in addition to saying that Vietnam “always attaches importance to the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia, Phuc also said that Hanoi “desire further strengthen cooperation in all fields, for the common interests of the two countries.”
President Phuc and President Putin “affirmed their determination to make economic cooperation an important pillar of Vietnam-Russia relations“, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to MOFA, the two leaders “affirmed that energy and oil and gas will continue to be one of the main pillars of the comprehensive strategic partnership” and “agreed to continue maintaining and expanding the business’s activities of Vietnamese oil and gas in Russia and Russian oil and gas enterprises in Vietnam’s continental shelf in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The ministry added that the heads of state of the two countries “highly appreciated” cooperation in defense and security of the two countries and the prevention and control of COVID-19 such as the donation of masks, medical supplies, and vaccines.
On December 1, Russia and Vietnam agreed to expand production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in Vietnam, said the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the company that markets the vaccine in the international market, according to Reuters.
According to this news agency, an agreement between Russia and Vietnam’s state-owned VABIOTECH and Vietnam’s Sovico Group investment company was signed during Phuc’s visit to Russia this week, paving the way for the expanding production of Sputnik V in Vietnam.
According to Reuters, the agreement will also allow VABIOTECH, the company that produces Sputnik V, to begin production of the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine in Vietnam, RDIF said.
Before visiting Russia, Mr. Phuc went to Switzerland during his two-country tour from November 25 to December 2.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
