Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Foreign Affairs Đôn Tuấn Phong. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Vương Đình Huệ's official visit to Bulgaria from September 23-26 will contribute to deepening the traditional friendship and strengthening multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, which have been built and nurtured over the past 73 years.

The statement was made by Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Foreign Affairs Đôn Tuấn Phong in an interview granted to the media ahead of the visit, which will be made at the invitation of President of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, Rosen Zhelyazkov.

Phong said that in 1950, Bulgaria was one of the first countries in the world to officially establish diplomatic relations with Việt Nam. Huệ's official visit is made 15 years after the visit to the European country by then NA Chairman Nguyễn Phú Trọng in 2008.

During his stay in Bulgaria, Huệ will hold talks and meetings with senior Bulgarian leaders, attend a law policy forum to promote bilateral cooperation, and deliver a policy speech at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia capital.

The visit also aims to enhance collaboration between the two parliaments, as they plan to update their memorandum of understanding with new cooperation content to suit the international and regional situation as well as the relationship between the two countries.

One of the very important contents of this visit is to prompt Bulgaria and the European Union to effectively implementing the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and urge the Bulgarian NA to soon ratify the EU-Việt Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), said Phong.

He said that cooperation between the two parliaments is developing extensively in both bilateral and multilateral aspects. They have maintained coordination and mutual support at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP).

During the trip, Huệ and Bulgarian leaders will discuss measures to intensify collaboration in various fields to be commensurate with the potential and desires of the two countries, Phong added.

Two-way trade reached US$203.6 million in 2022 and $147.25 million in the first eight months of this year.

Regarding investment, as of August 2023, Bulgaria had 14 valid investment projects in Việt Nam with a total registered capital of $31.32 million.

People-to-people exchanges between the two countries are continuously expanding. Cultural activities have been held regularly in both countries, contributing to promoting people-to-people exchanges and enhancing mutual understanding between the two countries' people.

Education-training is a traditional field of cooperation between the two countries, which has been always tightened thanks to the thousands of Vietnamese people living and studying in Bulgaria. The two countries signed an agreement on education cooperation for the 2019-2023 period.

There are currently over 1,000 Vietnamese people living in the European nation. VNS