Ambassador of Türkiye to Viet Nam Haldun Tekneci. (Photo: dangcongsan.vn)

On June 7th, Viet Nam and Türkiye will celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations. This year also marks the Türkiye’s 100th National Day. Could Your Excellency touch on the significance of these events? What will both countries do to celebrate such important milestones?

This year is an important milestone for Türkiye as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the foundation of our Republic. Türkiye has come to this day by achieving great successes and overcoming major challenges and has obtained higher standards in education, science, technology, tourism, transportation, heavy industry and health sectors.

This year also marks the 500th anniversary of the establishment of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As members of such a deep-rooted institution, with the experience and values passed down through generations and the motto of our country's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “Peace at home, peace in the world”, we have continued our work of maintaining peace, prosperity and stability in the world, as well as growing our diplomatic presence and relations in different geographies, including Southeast Asia.

Today, we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Viet Nam, one of the leading partners of Türkiye in the region as well as in ASEAN. Despite the geographical distance, both countries have been consistently strengthening their bonds and cooperation on the basis of friendly relations and respect for mutual interests. The accelerated development rate and unique potential of Viet Nam also offer opportunities for both countries, which Türkiye wishes to keenly work on.

Therefore, we will celebrate our constructive relations by maintaining the recent contacts between both countries with increasing momentum. We are also organizing activities to further promote the understanding between the two peoples.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, by December 2022, Türkiye’s businesses have invested 791.88 million USD into 34 projects in Viet Nam. While the numbers have shown progresses, they remained modest regarding the potentials of the two countries’ businesses and markets. What can Viet Nam and Türkiye do to promote cooperation in this area?

There is significant, yet unexplored potential for investment, cooperation between Türkiye and Viet Nam. The bilateral economic and trade relations have been relatively modest, but the recent progress have shed light into the possible future collaboration opportunities. In 2022, our bilateral trade has exceeded 2.2 billion USD. We hope to further increase our bilateral trade volume in a balanced manner in the upcoming years.

Turkish investors have started to consider Viet Nam as an important market not only to export but also to invest in. Currently, the majority of the Turkish investors in Viet Nam are operating in the areas of household appliances, white goods, and fast-moving consumer products. We see many opportunities in other areas as well such as tourism, defense, education, energy, construction and healthcare, therefore deepening our relations with Viet Nam, taking into consideration both countries’ needs and interests. We believe there is high potential to create a win-win situation for both sides.

For the realization of such potential, we encourage our national investment authorities and relevant business parties to increase cooperation with their Vietnamese counterparts. Facilitating visa procedures and market access conditions are also crucial for entrepreneurs from both countries to increase contacts with their respective partners.

We also strongly support exchanging trade delegations, as well as organizing sectoral fairs to demonstrate both sides’ needs, capabilities and seek joint business solutions. The strengthening of our economic, trade relations with Viet Nam will positively reinforce the existing cooperation and contribute to the establishment of new ones.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the Hayat Kimya Vietnam LLC's s production line at the Becamex Binh Phuoc's Industrial Zone in 2022. (Photo: Duong Giang/VNA)

Recently, two Vietnamese search and rescue teams had participated in their missions to support Türkiye after the latter’s devastating earthquake in February. In addition, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son also stated that Viet Nam stood ready to join reconstruction effort in earthquake-hit areas in Türkiye. What is your feeling on such actions?

As a developing country, Viet Nam has been more and more active in participation to the international efforts, pursuing peace, stability and prosperity.

As an indication of that, the Government of Viet Nam took a proactive stance, offered its support and sent two search and rescue teams comprising 100 personnel in uniform in total from the Ministries of Public Security and National Defense at a difficult time that Türkiye had been going through. The much-needed support from Viet Nam as well as other countries during a natural disaster with a catastrophic magnitude made a significant difference for Turkish people who were seriously affected by the earthquakes.

It was a time for solidarity in the face of such humanitarian crisis and Viet Nam rose to the occasion.

We wholeheartedly appreciate the Government of Viet Nam’s initiative and response to the situation in Türkiye, as well as, its offer for the reconstruction of the region. We are grateful to the members of those teams, who were rewarded with the State Medal and Order of Supreme Sacrifice by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 25 April 2023.

People's Army of Vietnam's search-and-rescue team members during their mission in Hatay, Türkiye on March 2023. (Source: Van Hieu/PAN)

Could you share some experience after 3 years of living and working in Viet Nam? What has left the deepest impression on Ambassador personally?

If I start to count the experiences and impressions that I have had during my tenure in Viet Nam, I am afraid that one single interview would not be enough. Yet, possibly the most remarkable one I can mention is the relentless drive of Viet Nam towards growth and development. I believe that tenacity, resilience, diligence and communal harmony of Vietnamese people in general provide a very strong base for this growth endeavor. As a result, I am very pleased to see that there are many opportunities still untapped for both countries that will certainly lead to strengthening of bilateral ties in many fields.

I would like to thank The World and Viet Nam Report for this opportunity to talk about the relationship on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations. Looking back at the past, Türkiye and Viet Nam achieved a good deal together. However, we cannot be content. Two sides should continue to explore, earmark and utilize additional cooperation areas, in order to attain even stronger relations and diplomatic ties in the future.