Vietnam and France have maintained their relations despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through online talks, the exchange of letters or bilateral meetings, notably the visit to France by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last November, French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery has said.

French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery.

Prior to France's National Day on July 14, the ambassador told the press that the two countries have also maintained people-to-people exchanges, especially students, adding that France has increased scholarships to Vietnamese students.

They have continued with bilateral cooperation projects, including metro line No. 3 in Hanoi – a symbol of the bilateral economic ties, and others in climate change, heritage preservation and French language teaching in Vietnam.

According to the ambassador, Vietnam and France showed their friendship, solidarity and support during the pandemic combat, as Vietnam provided facial masks for France in 2020, while France donated 3.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Southeast Asian nation through bilateral cooperation channels and the COVAX Facility.

He stressed that France wants to promote the presence of its enterprises in Vietnam, and held that bilateral trade can grow further in the context of the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) coming into force on August 1, 2020.

Apart from traditional cooperation spheres, France wished to expand bilateral collaboration in new fields such as renewable energy, urban planning and sustainable city development.

For cultural cooperation, Warnery highlighted the French Institute in Vietnam with a range of activities, saying the French side will launch a project on heritage conservation in Vietnam in the time ahead, under which French museums will cooperate with their Vietnamese counterparts in this regard.

The diplomat said the value of French scholarships to Vietnamese students will increase by 20 percent this year as compared with the previous year. France is also an incubator for Vietnamese startups, he continued.

For the celebration of the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2023, he said it will begin right in December 2022 with a conference in Hanoi, and there will be multiple activities next year.