President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and Argentina’s Ambassador Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino. (Photo: VNA)

Along the years, Argentina and Vietnam have forged strong bilateral ties based on three pillars: a fluid political dialogue, sustained and uninterrupted trade growth and south/south technical assistance cooperation.

Argentina and Vietnam have had constant dialogue at all levels of government, sharing common values and visions and cooperating both bilaterally and in the multilateral arena. And after two years of distress as we were living in the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are happy to be able to once again to have this ministerial level visit of the Argentine Minister of Foreign Relations, Santiago Cafiero.

Argentina’s Ambassador to Viet Nam Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino. (Photo: Argentine Embassy to Vietnam)

In 2021, Vietnam was the sixth trade partner of Argentina, reaching a bilateral trade volume of 4.5 billion dollars. Argentina and Vietnam are complementary economies; more than 90% of Argentine exports, particularly agricultural products, is injected into the Vietnamese supply chain.

Since 1998, Vietnam has been the main recipient in the South East Asian region of Argentina’s South/South cooperation, with over 15 technical assistance projects executed and currently working on new others. In 2010, the level of bilateral relations reached the Comprehensive Partnership and we are looking forward to and working together to enhance even more our current cooperation in all fields, such as trade, peaceful use of outer space, digital, legal and technical assistance, diversity, multilateral issues, etc.

It is within this scope that Minister Cafiero is making the visit to Vietnam, invited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son. It will be the first bilateral visit that Minister Cafiero will be making to the Southeast Asia region, following his trip to the G20 Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting in Bali.

The two Foreign Ministers will meet for the first time, following their online dialogue that took place on April 18, to review the accomplishments of the bilateral agenda and collaboration on the multilateral level, as well as to address jointly ways of future cooperation and to deepen ties even more between the two nations.

Argentina and Vietnam are committed to the principles and goals of the UN and its Charter. To that extent, the two nations have common values and share visions on how to face global challenges. Argentina believes that a global challenge such as the current pandemic COVID-19 and climate change, to give two examples, needs to be tackled together. Cooperation among nations is crucial: bilateral and regional cooperation and through the international community as a whole.

In the last two years, Argentina and Vietnam have worked together within their means to cooperate and assist each other to mitigate the impact of COVID- 19. Back in 2020, Vietnam came to Argentina with a donation of 20 thousand masks. Last year Argentina was able to respond to the generosity of Vietnam with a donation of 500 thousand vaccines.