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| The official welcoming ceremony for President Vo Van Thuong, his wife and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation was solemnly held at the Austrian Presidential Palace. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
At the invitation of Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on the morning of July 24, President Vo Van Thuong and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, began an official visit to the Republic of Austria.
The official welcoming ceremony for President Vo Van Thuong, his wife and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation was solemnly held at the Austrian Presidential Palace. Immediately after the official welcoming ceremony, President Vo Van Thuong and President Alexander Van der Bellen had a private meeting and co-chaired talks between the high-ranking delegations of the two countries.
In a sincere, friendly and open atmosphere, the two Leaders informed each other about the situation in each country, discussed cooperation orientations and measures to promote and further deepen the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and the Republic of Austria.
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| Official welcoming ceremony for the President and his wife at the Austrian Presidential Palace. |
President Alexander Van der Bellen warmly welcomed President Vo Van Thuong on his official visit to the Republic of Austria, expressing the importance of the Party, State of Vietnam and President Vo Van Thuong personally to the relationship between the two countries, congratulating Vietnam on its great achievements in socio-economic development in recent times, affirming that Austria attaches importance to the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Vietnam established since 1972, considering Vietnam an important partner in implementing Austria's foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in trade and investment, wishing to further consolidate and promote bilateral relations in economics, education and culture.
President Vo Van Thuong sincerely thanked President Alexander Van der Bellen and the Austrian people for the warm, thoughtful and respectful reception for the delegation, affirming that Vietnam always values and wishes to strengthen the friendly relations and multifaceted cooperation with Austria, a trusted friend of Vietnam in the European Union (EU).
The Head of State of Vietnam believes that the visit will contribute to strengthening political trust between the two countries, creating new momentum to strongly promote Vietnam-Austria relations in the next period, for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
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| President Vo Van Thuong and his wife and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife met in the Austrian President's office before the talks. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
Discussing bilateral relations, President Vo Van Thuong and President Alexander Van der Bellen expressed satisfaction with the substantive and effective development after more than half a century of the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in many fields such as politics - diplomacy, trade - investment, development cooperation, culture, education - training, vocational training, science - technology, and people-to-people exchange.
In order to increase political trust and exploit the great cooperation potential of the two countries, the two Heads of State agreed to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially at high levels and through all channels, effectively deploy existing cooperation mechanisms, and at the same time study and establish cooperation mechanisms suitable to the new situation.
Regarding economic cooperation, the two leaders positively assessed the economic - trade - investment relations between the two countries with bilateral trade turnover reaching 2.79 billion USD in 2022. Austria has many large enterprises doing business and investing in Vietnam.
President Vo Van Thuong suggested that the two sides should continue to coordinate closely and effectively utilize the benefits of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA); including considering facilitating each country's strong export products to access each other's markets; Austria has policies to encourage and facilitate Austrian enterprises to boost investment in Vietnam in areas of strength such as supporting industries for automobile production, railways, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, etc.
The Austrian President emphasized that Vietnam is Austria's largest partner in Southeast Asia, hoping that both sides will pay attention to improving the bilateral trade balance.
President Vo Van Thuong asked Austria to soon complete the procedures for ratifying the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to facilitate equal and mutually beneficial investment relations between the two sides; and asked Austria to support and urge the European Commission (EC) to soon remove the IUU yellow card on Vietnamese seafood, creating favorable conditions for Vietnam to export this item to the EU.
The President suggested that Austria put Vietnam on the priority list for ODA and have more preferential loan policies, especially for projects in the fields of health, environment, vocational training, fire prevention and fighting, and rescue.
The Austrian President welcomed the fact that the two sides are discussing preferential loans from the Austrian Government, thereby soon implementing sustainable development cooperation projects.
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| President Vo Van Thuong and his wife and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife take a group photo. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation activities in education-training, culture-arts, sports, and promote people-to-people exchange activities. The Austrian President highly appreciated the Vietnamese community, which, although small, has integrated well into the economic and social life in Austria and agreed with the proposal of President Vo Van Thuong to continue to pay attention to and create favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Austria, serving as a bridge for the friendly relations between the two countries.
Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, President Vo Van Thuong appreciated Austria’s interest in promoting relations with Southeast Asia and Vietnam, and its willingness to act as a bridge to help Austria strengthen relations with ASEAN; and suggested that Austria act as a bridge to help Vietnam strengthen relations with the EU. The two leaders agreed to continue to closely coordinate at regional and international forums, especially the United Nations and the ASEAN-EU cooperation framework, contributing to peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
Regarding the East Sea, the two Leaders reaffirmed the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation in the East Sea, supporting international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
President Vo Van Thuong invited the Austrian President and his wife to visit Vietnam soon. The Austrian President happily accepted the invitation.
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| President Vo Van Thuong and the President of Austria witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
After the talks, President Vo Van Thuong and the Austrian President witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria.
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