Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (right) welcomes Austrian Ambassador to Việt Nam Philipp Agathonos in Hà Nội on March 26 evening. VNA/VNS photo

HÀ NỘI – Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính hosted a reception in Hà Nội on March 26 evening for newly-appointed Austrian Ambassador to Việt Nam Philipp Agathonos.

PM Chính congratulated Agathonos on assuming his new task in Việt Nam, and expressed his belief that with many years of experience working in diplomacy, the Ambassador will actively contribute to consolidating and strengthening the friendship and cooperation between Việt Nam and Austria. He affirmed that the Vietnamese Government and ministries will create all favourable conditions for Agathonos to successfully complete his working term.

Sharing about the development of relations between the two countries, the PM expressed his joy to witness the Việt Nam- Austria relationship achieving many impressive achievements, especially in the fields of politics - diplomacy, economics, development cooperation, science - technology, culture - arts, education - training, and people-to-people exchanges.

Việt Nam is currently Austria's largest trading partner in ASEAN and Austria is always in the top 10 export markets of Việt Nam in the EU with a trade turnover of about US$2.45 billion in 2024. The PM highly appreciated the Austrian Government for providing ODA in recent times, actively contributing to Việt Nam's socio-economic development.

In order to further promote the potential and strengths of the two countries, contributing to improving bilateral relations in the coming time, PM Chinh proposed the two sides promote the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, and step up cooperative activities to improve trade and investment exchanges.

The government leader expressed his belief that the Austrian Parliament’s approval of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and the European Commission's removal of its IUU yellow card against Vietnamese seafood will create favourable conditions for economic cooperation between Việt Nam and the EU in general, and between Việt Nam and Austria in particular.

With Austria's strengths in the field of rail transport, the two sides can identify this as a promising field of cooperation in the coming time, focusing on exploiting preferential capital sources, technology transfer and human resource training, he suggested.

In addition, the two sides need to coordinate closely, enhance exchanges and expand cooperation in the fields of education - training, cultural and artistic exchange, and cooperate to solve global challenges such as responding to climate change, organising cultural promotion events to the public of both sides to tighten the friendship between the two countries.

Agathonos expressed his honour to receive the new task, sharing his impression of Vietnam's socio-economic development achievements and role in the region.

Affirming that Việt Nam is an important partner of Austria in Southeast Asia, he expressed his determination and commitment to make every effort to develop the bilateral relations more and more deeply and effectively, considering this as the direction and focus of his term in Việt Nam.

Regarding trade and investment cooperation, the Ambassador highly appreciated the instructions of PM Chính at the dialogue with big European corporations and businesses on March 2, 2025, to make Việt Nam a destination for production, business, and long-term investment of EU businesses in the region.

He said that in addition to traditional areas of cooperation, the Austrian Embassy will coordinate closely with Vietnamese partners to find new potential areas of cooperation, especially in the fields of science - technology, education - training, cyber security, nursing staff and railway infrastructure. VNA/VNS