Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on the sidelines of the ASEAN-EU Summit. (Source: VNA)

What are crucial achievements the two nations have gained over the recent time?

I think the last 5 years profoundly re-confirmed the traditional friendship between our countries, through a renewed dynamics of the high level contacts and the excellent cooperation in addressing major challenges that affect our time, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the joint efforts for the evacuation of over 1,000 Vietnamese citizens from the war in Ukraine.

I seize this opportunity to mention some of the high level contacts that took place recently meeting between the President of Romania, H.E. Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis and Vietnamese Prime Minister, H.E. Mr. Pham Minh Chinh and on the occasion of UNGA (September 2023) and at the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations in Brussels, Belgium (December 2022), phone call between the Presidents of the two countries (July 2021).

The excellent political-diplomatic dialogue has also been reflected by positive developments in the field of economic cooperation, including at the level of the European Union. One of the important of achievements of Romania's Presidency of the EU Council and of the EU's trade policy was the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and of the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) in June 2019. Romania is one of the first EU Member States that ratified the IPA.

The people to people contacts have also achieved major positive developments following the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulating the cultural, academic and business contacts. Representatives of more than 30 Romanian universities visited Vietnam in the last 2 years and the famous Bucharest Symphony orchestra performed in Vietnam, in 2022 and 2023, at Hanoi Opera House and in Dalat. Several economic missions visited Vietnam in the last year, exploring new venues to deepen and diversify the bilateral economic cooperation.

Can you share with us about the significance of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s upcoming official visit to Romania? What are your expectations about the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s upcoming visit?

The visit will take further the dialogue at Prime Minister level between Romania and Vietnam. The most recent contacts at this level took place in 2016 (official visit to Vietnam of the Prime Minister of Romania) and 2019 (official visit to Romania of the Prime Minister of Vietnam). The visit has also a sound symbolism, highlighting the strong people-to-people bonds that shaped the 74 years of the bilateral relations. We are most honored by the fact that the Prime-Minister of Vietnam, H.E. Mr. Pham Minh Chinh graduated his university studies in Romania.

The multitude of domains of mutual interest settle favorable premises for a successful and substantial visit. We expect progress on a number of projects as well as on the bilateral legal framework of cooperation. The visit has the potential to be a milestone for the sectorial cooperation, providing a deeper understanding of each other’s priorities and interests.

Could you elaborate on key cooperation sectors and priorities between the two countries to promote the relationship in the upcoming time?

First of all we would like to underline excellent results achieved during the 17th session of the Vietnam-Romania Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation at Minister level that took place in Hanoi, last November.

Important cooperation mechanisms were agreed in fields of mutual interest such as commerce, agriculture, fito-sanitary, energy, labor, science, technology, and culture.

Romania can be a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter Europe in the same manner Vietnam for Romania to enter ASEAN market.

We need to make effective use of the EVFTA to open up each other's markets and attract investments in sectors of mutual interest.

Can you touch on goals during your tenure to deepen relations between the two countries?

Providing a new dimension for the high level political-diplomatic contacts, diversifying the economic exchanges, increasing the people-to-people contacts, building new bridges through culture cooperation, intensifying the academic exchanges are some of the most important priorities of my tenure in Vietnam.

The tradition nature of our bilateral relations, the strong friendship between our countries and the extraordinary potential of our bilateral agenda set favorable conditions for an ambitious approach of the future.

Thank you very much!