Party chief, Russian State Duma Chairman highlight progress in bilateral ties

Party General Secretary To Lam and visiting Chairman of the Russian Federal Assembly’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin acknowledged positive results in bilateral cooperation regarding economy trade, energy, oil and gas, defence security, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges at their meeting in Hanoi on September 29.

General Secretary Lam stressed that his guest’s official visit to Vietnam provides fresh impetus to political trust, laying a stepping stone for the Vietnam Russia relationship to grow stronger and more sustainable in the new phase of cooperation.

As a sincere friend of the Russian people, Vietnam always wishes to see a Russia of stable and prosperous development with improved social welfare and well-being for its people, he said. Vietnam also hopes Russia will play a more important role in cooperation mechanisms, security and development in the Asia-Pacific and the world, as well as in building a regional structure that is equal, inclusive, comprehensive, open, transparent, and based on international law.

The Vietnamese leader called on Russia to support Vietnam and ASEAN’s stance on maintaining peace, stability, and order in the East Sea in line with international law, the UN Charter, and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). He underlined Vietnam’s consistent policy of advancing its traditional friendship and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia in line with the two countries’ positions in each other’s foreign policies, their mutual trust, benefits and wishes, and shared historical ties.

General Secretary Lam highly valued the encouraging outcomes of inter-parliamentary cooperation, describing it as an important channel and effective supervisory mechanism for bilateral collaboration between the Governments and ministries of the two countries. He suggested the State Duma continue close coordination with Vietnam’s National Assembly in this regard and thanked the State Duma for promptly ratifying bilateral agreements.

The meeting between Party General Secretary To Lam and Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin in Hanoi on September 29 (Photo: VNA)

For his part, Chairman Volodin, who co-chaired the fourth meeting of the Vietnam Russia Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee as part of his two-day visit, said President Putin and other Russian leaders attached great importance to the trip, seeing it as a crucial step towards effectively implementing the outcomes of General Secretary Lam’s visit to Russia in May.

He affirmed that he and other Russian leaders highly value the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam over the protection, construction, and development of Vietnam.

He noted representatives of all political parties in the State Duma join his delegation to Vietnam, highlighting that although the parties have different platforms and viewpoints, they are highly unanimous in supporting comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam, regard the country as a reliable and faithful partner, and stay ready to contribute the most to bilateral ties.

Volodin also briefed his host on the outcomes of the fourth meeting, affirming that the State Duma will work to create a favourable legal framework for further promoting effective cooperation, particularly in economy trade and investment, energy, oil and gas, nuclear power, science technology, and education training.

Both sides shared that bilateral trade has grown at over 20% annually, and the number of Russian tourists to Vietnam has doubled year-on-year.

They underscored the sound tradition of cooperation in education training, science technology engineering, and health care, expressing the determination to elevate such collaboration with joint projects to fully tap the two countries’ potential and meet their development needs./.