Belarus regards Vietnam as its strategic political and economic partner in the world, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on 7 April in the course of the talks with President of Vietnam Nguyễn Minh Triết. The talks were held in two rounds: a meeting in a reduced format and a meeting in an extended format.

Today Vietnam is one of the influential countries in South Eastern Asia and an authoritative member of international organisations. According to Alexander Lukashenko, the results reached in cooperation with Vietnam over the last decade – the period of economic reforms and openness policy – “are not just impressive – they are amazing”.

The President of Belarus said that friendly Belarusian-Vietnamese relations, which were established as long ago as in the Soviet times, at no time were suspended. “The foreign policy that our state has been pursuing, has always been oriented towards constructive cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” said the Belarusian leader.

Belarus and Vietnam pursue independent foreign policy in keeping with the interests of their peoples, for which reason they have to cope with political and economic pressure as exerted on them by some states that pretend to be the leaders of the world community. In this respect, according to Alexander Lukashenko, especially important for both countries are the issues related to overcoming the unipolar world order, preventing acts of interference with the affairs of sovereign states, establishing fair relations between all states and creating conditions for successful social and economic development.

The President of Belarus said he was confident that that the current talks would become a new jumping-off point for stepping up Belarusian-Vietnamese relations, and bringing them onto a new level. “I will be honest with you: we hope to achieve a considerable breakthrough in boosting our trade and economic relations, in increasing our trade turnover. And in this respect, Belarus has a lot to offer Vietnam,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

Although situated far from each other geographically, Belarus and Vietnam have a lot in common, he said. “ We have uniform approaches to solving urgent international issues . We seek to build rather than to destroy,” he added. Both countries pursue similar a socio-oriented economic policy, Alexander Lukashenko said. The economies of Belarus and Vietnam have been reporting dynamic development, and, structurally, they are complementary.

For his part, the President of Vietnam said he was confident that this Alexander Lukashenko’s visit was marking a new stage in the development of the bilateral interaction. “We would like to see our relationship with Belarus develop in all areas. Vietnam regards Belarus as its traditional friend,” Nguyễn Minh Triết said.

Assessing the summit talks, which focused on urgent international issues, Alexander Lukashenko said the talks had enabled the two countries to coordinate their positions and identify the most important area of Belarus-Vietnamese interaction.

After the talks, the presidents signed a joint declaration, in which Belarus and Vietnam said they intended to step up onto a qualitatively new level of interaction and were prepared to intensify the bilateral cooperation in all areas. In addition, Belarus and Vietnam urged countries of the world “to refrain from direct of indirect use of force, from taking unilateral measures of economic pressure, which run counter to the UN Charter and international law”.

Some official documents were signed in the presence of the presidents, which were aimed at expanding the legal framework of Belarusian-Vietnamese cooperation. The documents included the intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in quarantine and plant protection and the Consular Convention between the Republic of Belarus and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In addition, the Belarusian petrochemical concern Belneftekhim and the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) signed a framework agreement on cooperation in the oil and gas, and petrochemical fields.

Belarus is prepared to supply its diesel engines to Vietnam and open a production facility for this purspose in Vietnam later on. Under an agreement signed in Hanoi, Belarus will supply more than 500 MTZ tractors to Vietnam.