MINSK, 10 November (BelTA) – Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak met with outgoing Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to Belarus Pham Hai on 10 November, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian government.
The vice premier praised the ambassador's merits in boosting bilateral relations and thanked him for his assistance in deepening cooperation between the two countries. “For Belarus, Vietnam is a key partner in Southeast Asia. The friendship between our countries has been time tested. We have always supported each other, and helped each other if it was needed. I am pleased to note that the two countries have made progress in intensifying bilateral cooperation in political, trade and economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian areas. The trade between Belarus and Vietnam is expanding. The two countries are implementing joint projects. The visa regime has been simplified,” said Anatoly Sivak.
He stressed however that the available potential is still hugely untapped. “The coronavirus pandemic has affected the opportunity of organizing bilateral events over the past two years. At the same time, the world is beginning to open up cautiously. Belarus sees this trend and hopes for a restoration of the pre-COVID level in bilateral relations,” the deputy prime minister said.
According to Anatoly Sivak, Belarus is interested in enhancing trade and economic cooperation with Vietnam, including joint development of ASEAN markets, strengthening scientific, technical, educational and cultural cooperation.
Pham Hai emphasized his deep feetings to Belarus. “We have received help and comprehensive support here. We have maintained close contacts with ministries and agencies. Let me express my gratitude to the government of Belarus for the recent humanitarian assistance to fight COVID-19. We are sincerely grateful to our Belarusian friends for coming to our aid despite your own difficult situation. It is a gesture of true friendship. The improved epidemic situation will let us return to our plans in the near future. The priority for us is to organize a visit of the Belarusian prime minister to Vietnam, which we had to postpone for a while because of the difficult epidemic situation in Vietnam. We are also planning to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. We will have to make efforts to raise the trade to the level we had before the pandemic,” said the ambassador.
The ambassador assured that Vietnam is ready to assist industrial cooperation projects with Belarus.
