Key export items included garment, coffee, seafood, iron and steel, machines and tools. Remarkably, Viet Nam earned nearly US$700 million from exporting iron and steel to Russia.

Russian consumers tend to prefer frozen pangasius fillet products from Viet Nam, with over US$36 million consumed in June 2024, up 8 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Since 2012, Viet Nam has remained the second largest supplier of white meat fish to Russia after Argentina. Tuna exports doubled in just three years, from US$14 million in 2021 to nearly US$29 million last year.

During the first seven months this year, Viet Nam spent US$1.37 billion on imports from Russia, up nearly 45 percent.

In the reviewed period, the bilateral trade value was estimated to hit US$2.7 billion, up 45 percent.

Viet Nam signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) - an economic union of five countries namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.

The above deal, which took effective from 2016, has created favorable conditions for Viet Nam and Russia to get access to each other's market as well as expand investment./.