At the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron, General Secretary To Lam paid an official visit to France from October 6-7, 2024. During the visit, the leaders of the two sides announced the upgrading of the relationship between the two countries to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Thus, France became the first country in Europe to establish this relationship with Vietnam.
On the occasion of the At Ty Spring, Nhan Dan Newspaper reporters had an interview with French Ambassador Olivier Brochet about the potential for cooperation between the two countries after upgrading relations. Looking back at history, Ambassador Olivier Brochet commented that the cooperative relationship that Vietnam needs in 2025 is very different from the cooperative relationship that Vietnam had in 1986: "Now, we are not talking about cooperation anymore but about partnership". In addition, French investors are also looking forward to Vietnam's administrative reforms and legal corridors in the coming time.
Specifically, when upgrading the relationship to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the leaders of the two countries proposed three main axes of cooperation:
First, sovereignty: France wishes to accompany Vietnam in the process of affirming its sovereignty, contributing to maintaining stability and peace in the region.
Second, sustainable development: Both France and Vietnam are very interested in issues related to sustainable development such as climate change, cyber security, etc. Therefore, we hope that both sides can go far in the cooperation process, finding ways to solve the challenges of the times.
Third, innovation: France wants to cooperate closely so that Vietnam can have highly innovative technologies. This is the foundation for creating a cooperative relationship between businesses of the two countries.
It can be said that upgrading the relationship to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a very strong political signal. This is an order from the senior leaders of both sides for all functional agencies to strengthen cooperation with each other.
Let me give three examples:
First, sovereignty: During the visit to France by General Secretary To Lam in October 2024 and the visit to Vietnam by French Minister of Defense Sébastien Lecornu in May 2024, the two sides mentioned strengthening cooperation in the field of sovereignty protection. Vietnam needs not only major partners but also diverse partners. And France is ready to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in this field.
With its position, France is in a position to support its partners in asserting their sovereignty. We have built this form of cooperation with many countries such as India and Indonesia. In Vietnam, the two sides can consider cooperation in areas related to military equipment and weapons to enhance Vietnam's ability to protect its sovereignty.
We believe that with the new cooperation framework, France and Vietnam will take further steps in this field.
Second, railway traffic: France is fully capable of participating in the project to build a high-speed North-South railway line in Vietnam.
Indeed, we have high hopes for this cooperation. France is a leading country in the development of high-speed rail lines with about 3,000 km of inland railways.
With these experiences, we hope that Vietnam will be interested in and consider France's possible participation in the upcoming North-South high-speed railway project.
Third, energy: We are particularly interested in Vietnam's return to the nuclear energy sector. Because France is also one of the countries that develops nuclear energy most vigorously in the world. 70% of France's electricity is nuclear energy. This is the highest figure in Europe. Therefore, France is also the country with the lowest CO2 emissions per capita in Europe.
Since its inception, France has never had a major incident in this field. This is not only due to good technology, but also to very strict legal frameworks and regulations.
Therefore, we look forward to enhanced cooperation with Vietnam in the field of nuclear energy. 
We wish to draw and accumulate experience in the process of working with Vietnamese partners. Please note that the relationship between the two countries is currently a comprehensive strategic partnership. I emphasize the strategic element, because this relationship is not simply based on commercial interests in cooperation between the two sides.
In the railway sector, we also have state-owned enterprises as key players, such as the French national railway company SNCF , which can help them understand Vietnam's public sector partners better.
French investors also hope that Vietnam will have an increasingly clear legal framework. Because they cannot be too adventurous in such large-scale projects.
I believe that Vietnam has a very clear determination on this issue. General Secretary To Lam has set the goal of administrative reform and a strong legal corridor to create the most favorable conditions for economic cooperation.
In November 2023, French Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guérini visited and worked in Vietnam. During the visit, France presented Vietnam with a handbook on e-Government development. Currently, the two sides continue to strengthen cooperation to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-Government model in Vietnam.
In addition to cooperation between state agencies, France and Vietnam have a lot of cooperation between startups. I think the two sides can continue to consider the possibility of cooperation in this area.
In terms of training, French-Vietnamese universities have great potential for cooperation, forming new training programs and subjects. I would like to emphasize projects related to the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (Vietnam-France University). The Vietnam-France High-Quality Engineer Program (PFIEV) or the France-Vietnam Center for Management Training (CFVG) both have many new programs related to the technology field.
In mid-February this year, Paris will host a conference on artificial intelligence. Invitations have been sent to Vietnam. We hope that Vietnam will join in discussing, sharing and building a way of world governance in the age of AI.
France's stance has always been to support the development of new technologies. We hope that both sides can work together to achieve the ambitions set for the coming years.
1986 was a milestone in Vietnam's renovation, but in fact this period lasted until 1990. This was also an extremely difficult time for Vietnam: having just escaped from continuous war, while still having to endure the pressure of the embargo.
At that time, very few countries were interested in Vietnam. With a special relationship, France was one of Vietnam's major partners in the field of international cooperation.
In 1993 , President François Mitterrand - the first head of state from the West - paid an official state visit to Vietnam. During this visit, the two countries implemented many important projects. Among them was the establishment of the French Development Agency (AFD) in Vietnam. To date, the total budget that AFD has deployed in Vietnam has reached more than 3 billion euros. In addition, France has also awarded thousands of scholarships to Vietnamese students.
Of course, these projects are not the only basis for Vietnam's success, but they also contribute positively to Vietnam's innovation process.
We see this clearly through the goals that General Secretary To Lam has set, especially the goal of making Vietnam a developed country by 2045. That goal is not only ambitious but also very important and legitimate. France believes that Vietnam is fully capable of achieving this goal. To achieve that goal, Vietnam will have to rely on its own strength, but at the same time, it will also need international cooperation.
The cooperation that Vietnam needs today is completely different from the cooperation that Vietnam had 40 years ago. Now, we are not talking about cooperation anymore but about partnership. Vietnam needs equal partnerships to transfer technology, transfer capacity, and provide training to improve the quality of human resources to serve Vietnam.
With the special ties between the two countries, I hope that the France-Vietnam cooperation relationship will be increasingly strengthened, contributing to the development of Vietnam.
Reporter: Thank you and Happy New Year, Ambassador!
Nhandan.vn
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