Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

The visits are of extremely significance as after a long time a Vietnamese PM visits Romania and the Czech Republic when the three countries are preparing for the 70th anniversaries of diplomatic ties in 2020 and and pushing approval of the EVFTA and the EVIPA. 

During the four-day visits, PM Phuc joined nearly 30 activities including holding talks and meetings with Romanian and Czech leaders and  visiting the overseas Vietnamese communities.  

PM Phuc's visit to Romania is  the first overseas tour of a Vietnamese PM to the country since 1977. He held talks with his counterpart Viorica Dancila.

The two leaders exchanged ideas on measures to further push up bilateral relations in the fields of great potential like politics, diplomacy, security and national defense, economy, trade, investment, education and training, labor, culture, tourism, agriculture and food processing. They spoke highly of the cooperation between the two countries’ localities over the recent past, taking this as a direction for the traditional cooperation between the two sides.

The two PMs agreed to increase the exchange of high-level delegations and effectively implement existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms. The two sides should make active preparations for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations.

The two sides agreed to soon hold the 16th meeting of the Viet Nam-Romania Joint Committee on economic cooperation this year with a view to boosting the exchange of commodities and services that bring mutual benefits, especially farm and aquatic products, electronic and electrical machines and equipment, pharmaceuticals, machineries and equipment used in agriculture, construction and oil production, IT products and services, and equipment and spare parts used in the railway sector.

During the official visit to the Czech Republic, PM Phuc held talks with his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis. They agreed to continue to effectively implement the mechanism of the Viet Nam – Czech inter-governmental committee on economic cooperation and push up cooperation in the fields of security, national defense, technology, mining, and tourism. 

The two PMs agreed to strengthen the exchange of delegations between sectors and localities of the two countries. They also concurred to closely coordinate their work to organize activities marking the 70th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties.

After talks, PM Phuc and his Romanian counterpart witnessed the signing of a cooperation memorandum of understanding on agriculture, animal health and food safety, and chaired a joint press conference on the outcome of the talks. Meanwhile, PM Phuc and his Czech counterpart witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in mining between authorities of the two sides. 

On the basis of the successful official visits, Viet Nam-Romania, Viet Nam-the Czech Republic issued joint statements. 

On this occasion, PM Phuc also attended the Viet Nam-Romania Business Forum and the Viet Nam-Czech Republic Business Forum. The PM stressed that the State provides favorable investment environment for enterprises to do long-term business and businesses are in charge of deciding scale and methods of cooperation especially when Viet Nam has signed 12 FTAs and will ink the EVFTA. 

PM Phuc also visited the overseas Vietnamese communities in Romania and the Czech Republic.  

The successful official tours are important, serving to promoting the traditional friendship between Viet Nam and her Eastern European friends; generating new impetus to beef up the bilateral ties and signing of the EVFTA and EVIPA./.