Argentine Ambassador to Viet Nam Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino - Photo: VGP/Quang Thuong

The Ambassador said, this year is a very special year for Argentina and Viet Nam. Both countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Argentina established diplomatic relations with Viet Nam on October 25, 1973, becoming the third nation in Latin American establishing diplomatic relations with Viet Nam.

"The comprehensive partnership between the two nations, established in 2010, has never been as consolidated as it is now", he noted.

A crucial milestone that boosted bilateral ties was the opening of the Embassy of Viet Nam in Argentina in 1995 and the opening of the Embassy of Argentina in Ha Noi in 1997.

Three main pillars in Viet Nam-Argentina relations

According to Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino, the bilateral relationship between Argentina and Viet Nam is founded on three main pillars.

The first pillar is the excellent political dialogue at the highest and all levels. In February 1997, President Carlos Saul Menem visited Ha Noi to inaugurate the newly established Argentine Embassy. Later on, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and President Mauricio Macri visited Viet Nam in 2013 and in 2019, respectively.

Likewise, Vietnamese senior leaders visiting Argentina included President Tran Duc Luong in 2004, Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Van An in 2006, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in 2010 and, most recently, Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue in recent April.

"These high-level visits illustrate how significant and strong the relation between our countries is, despite the geographical distance", underscored the diplomat.

Bilateral trade is the second pillar of the Argentina-Viet Nam relationship. Over the past 10 years, bilateral trade has grown by 700 percent and reached almost to US$5 billion in 2022.

Viet Nam is Argentina's sixth largest trading partner in the world and Argentina is Viet Nam's third largest trading partner in Latin America. One of the main reasons that explains this outstanding performance in trade is the fact that both economies are complementary and do not compete for the same markets.

Argentina is a trustworthy supplier of raw materials and agro-industrial products that Viet Nam incorporates in its production chain, while Viet Nam mostly exports consumer goods with high added value.

As such, both countries are looking forward to keeping, increasing and diversifying this solid and sustainable trend and speeding up the market access process of agricultural products, added the Ambassador.

The third pillar of the bilateral relationship is technical cooperation. Viet Nam is the country in Asia with the highest amount of technical assistance projects provided by Argentina through the South-South and Triangular Argentine Cooperation Fund (FOAR).

In the international arena, Argentina and Viet Nam share a common vision and values in many areas such as peace and international security, the respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity and how to face global challenges such as climate change and trans-national crimes.  

"This is why the "50th Anniversary" gives us the opportunity to think about how we want to outline the bilateral relationship for the next 50 years for it to keep contributing to the development and growth of both countries and to the increase in the quality of life of the Argentine and Vietnamese people", shared the diplomat.