Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son shakes hands with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Ha Noi, April 17, 2023

Minister Bui made the call during talks with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg who is on an official visit to Viet Nam from April 16-18.

He affirmed that Viet Nam always attaches importance to and hopes to cement and deepen ties with Austria.

Bui also called on Austrian enterprises to invest in such areas as infrastructure, renewable energy, new technologies, and semiconductor chip production.

Minister Alexander Schallenberg spoke highly of Viet Nam's socio-economic achievements and expressed his wish to boost ties with Viet Nam - a leading partner of Austria in the Southeast Asian region.

The two sides took the occasion to discuss on new fields of cooperation including defense, security, labor and vocational training.

They also shared the importance of ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea as well as settling disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. (UNCLOS).

With bilateral trade turnover of over EUR 2.79 billion, Viet Nam is currently Austria's largest economic partner in ASEAN. There are currently 60 Austrian companies with offices or branches in Viet Nam.