PM Chính and his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala at an official ceremony on Friday. Photo chinhphu.vn

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Friday morning hosted an official welcome ceremony for his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala who is on an official visit to Việt Nam from April 20-22.

After the welcome ceremony, the two PMs held talks.

As scheduled, the Czech government leader will also witness the signing of bilateral cooperation pacts, pay a courtesy call to President Võ Văn Thưởng, and attend a Việt Nam -Czech Republic business forum.

The trip is the first to Asia by PM Petr Fiala since taking office at the end of 2021 and the first of a head of the Czech Government to Việt Nam in 15 years.

Given the sound growth of the countries’ traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation, the visit reflects the Vietnamese and Czech leaders' appreciation of and desire to strengthen the bilateral relations.

Việt Nam and the Czech Republic set up their diplomatic ties on February 2, 1950. Since then, the Czech Republic has always implemented a policy of developing cooperative relations with Việt Nam in all fields.

Two-way trade reached US$848 million in 2022, up 15 per cent year-on-year. The Czech Republic has 41 FDI projects in Việt Nam with a total capital of $92 million, mainly in the processing, manufacturing and mining. It was the first eastern European country to provide ODA to Việt Nam, with about $20 million in total.

Currently, there are nearly 100,000 Vietnamese people living in the Czech Republic. On July 3, 2013, the Czech Government decided to add Vietnamese-Czech people to its Council of Ethnic Minorities, thereby recognising Vietnamese-Czech people as an ethnic minority group in the country. — VNS