Singaporean Ambassador to Việt Nam Jaya Ratnam. VNA/VNS Photo Việt Đức

HÀ NỘI - Party General Secretary Tô Lâm’s official visit to Singapore will be made at a historic juncture in Việt Nam-Singapore relationship and the world itself, Singaporean Ambassador to Việt Nam Jaya Ratnam told Vietnam News Agency on the eve of the visit.

Affirming that Singapore and Việt Nam have a very strong and excellent relationship, he said two years ago, in 2023, the two countries celebrated the 50th year of their diplomatic relations and the 10th of their strategic partnership.

"We are looking forward very much to Party General Secretary Tô Lâm’s visit to Singapore. His visit to Singapore is a historic visit for us, because the last visit by a General Secretary was in 2012. It marks an important stage in our relationship, and also a stage in which we are looking towards taking our relationship up to a new level - the highest level," he said.

"This year, Việt Nam celebrates the 80th year of your independence and Singapore celebrates our 60th year of national independence. Our leaders are looking very much forward to welcoming him to Singapore and also having discussions with him on how Singapore and Việt Nam can work together to engage each other in new areas so that we can emerge even stronger from this current situation that we all face around the world," he said.

He affirmed that the Party General Secretary's visit this week would reinforce and strengthen the political connections between the two countries. These long-standing political connections were actually built on the basis of the relationship between Lee Kuan Yew and former Vietnamese Prime Minister Võ Văn Kiệt in the 1990s where they established the principles of the relationship based on mutual support, mutual respect, and, most importantly, mutual trust.

"This solid foundation gives us the basis to move forward and be partners for a new era," he said.

Noting that in 2023, the two nations launched green and digital partnership, he said "As we move on, we also know that Việt Nam is positioning itself for a new era - the new era of high economic growth. Singapore has been a long-standing partner of Việt Nam. We have excellent, strong and growing trade and economic relationship.

"Over the last three years, Singapore has been Việt Nam’s largest source of foreign direct investment. In 2024 Singapore’s cumulative investment in Việt Nam accounted for about US$80 billion spread across almost 4,000 projects in Việt Nam. Việt Nam was Singapore’s 11th largest trading partner last year. In the first month of this year, you were the ninth largest trading partner, showing the very strong momentum in our relationship.

"When we are looking forward, particularly as Việt Nam looks forward to a new era for relations, we have coined the common logo, partners for a new era. We are partners for a new era, because Singapore has been a long-term partner for Việt Nam," he said.

He described Việt Nam-Singapore industrial parks as iconic when talking about the bilateral relationship.

"In the coming years, we are going to see much more investments being drawn into Việt Nam by these parks and much more employment. More importantly, as Việt Nam moves towards a new era, Việt Nam and Singapore's industrial parks will move into a new era. They have been upgrading themselves, both in terms of sustainability and innovation," he said.

The two countries were also looking at how they could expand their relationship across many new areas including food, innovation and energy, he said.

"One good example of this is what we call the Việt Nam-Singapore Energy Project (VSEP), similar to the Việt Nam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) we started 30 years ago," he said.

Both countries have been working on to develop Việt Nam's ample renewable energy resources, particularly offshore wind, so that Việt Nam can participate in the ASEAN Power Grid, according to the ambassador. This ASEAN Power Grid will connect all ASEAN countries together to help them achieve energy security and common aspiration for net zero by 2050. VNS