Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà receives Russian counterpart Dmitry Nikolayevich Chernyshenko on Monday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà met with his visiting Russian counterpart Dmitry Nikolayevich Chernyshenko in Hà Nội on Monday.

The officials are the respective chairpersons of the Vietnamese and Russian subcommittees within the Việt Nam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee on Economic-Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation.

During the meeting, Hà stressed that Việt Nam pursues a consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification. Noting the importance of relations with Russia, he expressed Việt Nam’s wish to enhance bilateral cooperation across various fields.

The two Deputy PMs reviewed the implementation of cooperation activities since the 25th session of the intergovernmental committee in September 2024.

In the first 11 months of last year, bilateral trade turnover amounted to US$4.1 billion, up 27.4 per cent year-on-year. Việt Nam and Russia have undertaken cooperative initiatives and explored potential projects in industries such as machinery, metallurgy, chemicals, mineral processing, renewable energy equipment manufacturing, and transportation. Their energy cooperation has expanded into new areas, including gas-fired power plant construction, renewable energy infrastructure, and the modernisation of Việt Nam’s energy facilities.

Many measures were also agreed upon to enhance collaboration in sectors like agriculture, IT, science, education, culture, and sports; to promote tourism and people-to-people exchanges, increase Vietnamese and Russian language teaching, maintain scholarships for Vietnamese students in Russia, and encourage Russian students to study in Việt Nam; and to simplify visa procedures for Vietnamese citizens traveling to Russia for work or travel.

The two Deputy PMs acknowledged that bilateral economic and trade cooperation has yet to match the potential and strong political-diplomatic relations shared by the two countries. They called for greater efforts from ministries and sectors to expand the framework for bilateral joint work, remove trade barriers, and facilitate investment projects by businesses from both nations.

Ha expressed his confidence that 2025 will mark a leap in the growth of Việt Nam-Russia relations across all sectors through the mechanism of the intergovernmental committee and its subcommittees and working groups, contributing to strengthening the countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership. — VNS