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| Article titled 'Vietnam strengthens relations with Latin America' in Mexico's NotiMass Guerrero newspaper on November 9. (Screenshot) |
The article by NotiMass Guerrero – one of the newspapers with the largest readership in the southern region of Mexico – was published on the occasion of President Luong Cuong's official visit to the Republic of Chile, the Republic of Peru and his attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit Week in Peru from November 9-16.
The article reviews memorable milestones in the traditional relationship between Vietnam and the brotherly Latin American countries, emphasizing that despite the ocean separation, this is a solidarity rooted in the similarity in the history of the struggle for national liberation and the love of freedom and peace.
Opening the editorial, NotiMass Guerrero affirmed that the understanding and contact between Vietnam and Latin American countries were recorded as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Vietnam was still under colonial slavery and most Latin American countries had just gained independence.
During his journey across five continents in search of a way to save the country, in 1912, President Ho Chi Minh stopped at Martinique Island in the Caribbean, Uruguay and Argentina. This was the foundation for Uncle Ho to sow the first seeds of solidarity, friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Latin American countries.
Building on that foundation, in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, amid the flames of Vietnam's struggle for national liberation and reunification, Latin American people organized movements to protest the Vietnam War, as well as always expressed their enthusiastic support for the just struggle for independence and freedom of the Vietnamese people, thereby contributing to the formation of a people's front around the world supporting Vietnam.
Also during these years, Vietnam established diplomatic relations with Cuba (1960), Chile (1971) and Argentina (1973). Immediately after that, in the first 5 years after the country's reunification (1975-1980), Vietnam established diplomatic relations with 10 Latin American countries. This was the period when Vietnam stood side by side with its Latin American brothers in the struggle for independence, democracy and social progress.
For their part, Latin American countries not only strongly supported Vietnam's entry into the United Nations in 1977, but also assisted Vietnam in overcoming the consequences of war, expanding foreign relations, and opposing blockade and embargo measures.
Since Vietnam launched the Doi Moi process in 1986, relations between Vietnam and Latin American countries have entered a new, stronger and more comprehensive stage of development.
To date, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with all 33 countries in the Latin American region.
Referring to economic and trade relations, the article pointed out that in the context of the world economy in general and that of Vietnam and Latin American countries in particular experiencing many fluctuations, bilateral trade continues to maintain an encouraging growth momentum.
Over the past two decades, Vietnam-Latin America trade turnover has increased 67 times, from 300 million USD in 2000 to 23 billion USD in 2022. Vietnam has implemented a series of investment projects in this region of 650 million people, including strategic sectors such as energy, oil and gas exploitation and telecommunications.
Notably, in addition to the markets with the leading trade turnover in the region such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile... many emerging markets such as Panama, Colombia, Peru have become bright spots in Vietnam's trade exchange with Latin America.
Regarding investment, Vietnam continues to implement a number of important investment projects in Latin America with capital of hundreds of millions of USD, typically telecommunications network development projects of Viettel Group in Peru and Haiti, projects of Viglacera Corporation and Thai Binh Company in Cuba in the fields of infrastructure, consumer goods production, etc.
On the other hand, there are currently 21 Latin American countries investing in Vietnam with 114 projects, total registered investment capital of about 671 million USD.
Vietnam and its Latin American partners are also effectively implementing trade agreements to create leverage for economic, trade and investment relations, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Vietnam, Mexico, Chile and Peru are members; the Free Trade Agreement with Chile (VCFTA) and the Trade Agreement with Cuba.
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