German newspaper highlights Vietnamese PM’s visit to France

Junge Welt runs an article on Vietnamese PM Pham Minh Chinh's visit to France. (A screenshot of the article)

According to the article, PM Chinh had meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Jean Castex, and discussions with representatives of French businesses to further strengthen the economic cooperation relationship between the two countries. Before going to France, the Vietnamese PM attended the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, the UK.

PM Chinh's meetings in Paris focused on economic cooperation, it said. Trade turnover between Vietnam and France reached about 6.35 billion EUR last year, of which 5.38 billion EUR are from Vietnam's exports. 

At the meeting with PM Chinh, French President Macron described economic, trade and investment cooperation as the pillars of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and France. Many measures have been agreed upon by the two sides to further facilitate trade exchanges and promote cooperation projects in many important fields. President Macron also pledged to consider lobbying the European Commission (EC) to soon lift import restrictions on Vietnamese seafood products.

During talks with his French counterpart Jean Castex, PM Chinh called for the active implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) as well as speeding up the ratification process of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Many agreements in the areas of satellite, smart city, digital identity and cybersecurity were signed between the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group and Thales Group of France in the presence of the two PMs. 

At the Vietnam-France Business Forum, PM Chinh called on French businesses to invest in Vietnam and witnessed the signing of 29 cooperation agreements between ministries, agencies and businesses of Vietnam with partners from France and some European countries.

Currently, French enterprises are investing in 375 projects with a total value of 3.1 billion USD in Vietnam and France is the second largest European Union (EU) country investing in Vietnam.

During the visit, PM Chinh also had a meeting with Managing Director of the Office of the COVAX Facility Aurélia Nguyen and thanked the programme for providing Vietnam with 38.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Vietnamese PM also received Fabien Roussel, National Secretary of the French Communist Party. He expressed gratitude for the solidarity, support and valuable help that the French communists and people gave Vietnam in the resistance wars for national independence. At the same time, he emphasised that effective and practical cooperation activities between the two parties have made an important contribution to promoting the Vietnam-France strategic partnership./.

VNA