Prime Minister’s upcoming official visit to Romania has sound symbolism: Ambassador

In an interview with the VGP, Cristina Romila said, the visit will put forward the dialogue at Prime-Minister level between Romania and Viet Nam.

The most recent contacts at this level took place in 2016 when Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos paid an official visit to Viet Nam and it was follwed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's official visit to Romania in 2019.

"We are most honored by the fact that the Prime Minister of Viet Nam Pham Minh Chinh graduated his university studies in Romania. The multitude of domains of mutual interest settle favorable premises for a successful and substantial visit. We expect progress on a number of projects as well as on the bilateral legal framework of cooperation", she shared.

The visit has the potential to be a milestone for cooperation across all sectors, providing a deeper understanding of each other's priorities and interests, underlined the diplomat.

Re-confirming traditional friendship between Viet Nam and Romania

Regarding crucial achievements in the bilateral relations, Cristina Romila said, the last 5 years profoundly re-confirmed the traditional friendship between the two countries, through renewed and dynamic high level contacts and the excellent cooperation in addressing major challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the joint efforts for the evacuation of over 1,000 Vietnamese citizens from the war in Ukraine.

Besides meetings between the two Prime Ministers, some of the high level contacts that took place recently including meetings between the President of Romania Klaus Werner Iohannis and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in September 2023 and at the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2022, and a phone call between the Presidents of the two countries in July 2021.

In addition to the excellent political-diplomatic dialogue, the two nations have made positive developments in the field of economic cooperation not only within the bilateral framework, but also at the level of the European Union.

One of the important of achievements of Romania's Presidency of the EU Council and of the EU's trade policy was the signing of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and of the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) in June 2019. Romania is one of the first EU Member States that ratified the EVIPA.

The people-to people contacts have also achieved major positive developments following the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulating the cultural, academic and business contacts.

Representatives of more than 30 Romanian universities visited Viet Nam in the last two years and the famous Bucharest Symphony orchestra performed in Viet Nam, in 2022 and 2023, at Ha Noi Opera House and in Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. Several economic missions visited Viet Nam in the last year, exploring new venues to deepen and diversify the bilateral economic cooperation.

The Ambassador underlined excellent results achieved during the 17th session of the Viet Nam-Romania Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation that took place in Ha Noi, last November, at ministerial level.

Important cooperation mechanisms were agreed in fields of mutual interest such as commerce, agriculture, fito-sanitary, energy, labor, science, technology, and culture.

"Romania can be a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter Europe while Viet Nam plays a bridging role for Romania to enter ASEAN market. We need to make effective use of the EVFTA to open up each other's markets and attract investments in sectors of mutual interest", the diplomat suggested.

Providing a new dimension for the high level political-diplomatic contacts, diversifying the economic exchanges, increasing the people-to-people contacts, building new bridges through culture cooperation, intensifying the academic exchanges are some of the most important priorities of her tenure in Viet Nam, she shared.

The tradition nature of the bilateral relations, the strong friendship between the two countries and the extraordinary potential of the bilateral agenda set favorable conditions for an ambitious approach of the future, shared Cristina Romila./.