OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung discussed bilateral cooperation and carrying out joint bilateral projects.

Nguyen Tan Dung is in Russia on an official visit.

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Beginning of meeting with Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Prime Minister, friends, it is a great pleasure to see you here in Russia, in Sochi.

Our countries have longstanding friendly relations that are developing well. Even with all the problems in the global economy, our bilateral trade increased by almost 20 percent last year. This is not so much in absolute figures, and is certainly lower than our potential, but it is nevertheless a positive trend.

It is especially good to see that our relations are diversified in nature and encompass the energy sector – hydrocarbons and nuclear energy, and other sectors such as machine-building and military technical cooperation. This diversity is probably the most important thing.

I recall well my meeting with the President [Truong Tan Sang] last year. I hope that all of the mechanisms we have put in place and all of our joint ventures will develop actively and successfully.

I know that you had very productive and substantial talks yesterday with the Russian Prime Minister.

I am also very happy to see you and to have this chance to talk to you today.

Welcome!

PRIME MINISTER OF VIETNAM NGUYEN TAN DUNG (re-translated): Mr President of the Russian Federation, Russian and Vietnamese friends,

I am very happy to have this chance to meet with you again today, to meet with the President of the Russian Federation, who is a great friend of Vietnam, and to be your guest here in this beautiful city of Sochi, which is a city of historical significance for our country too.

Our respected and beloved President Ho Chi Minh came to Sochi in 1959, and it was here too, that our two countries’ leaders adopted a joint declaration in 2012 on further strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

Mr President, the aim of my current visit to Russia is to continue this course of comprehensive strategic partnership between our countries. Over these days, I have already had very useful and productive meetings with Mr Medvedev, the Prime Minister, and with Mr Naryshkin, the Speaker of the State Duma. I also visited Kaliningrad in the west of Russia and some of the border facilities that have a connection to Vietnam.