Minister of Foreign Affairs Lê Hoài Trung (right) receives Ambassador of the Czech Republic Hynek Kmonicek. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Minister of Foreign Affairs Lê Hoài Trung on Tuesday hosted a reception for Ambassador of the Czech Republic Hynek Kmonicek who came to say goodbye at the end of his tenure in Việt Nam.

The FM highly appreciated the diplomat’s positive contributions to consolidating and deepening the traditional friendship between Việt Nam and the Czech Republic. Trung affirmed that during Kmonicek's tenure, bilateral relations made strong progress and recorded notable achievements across fields.

Political and diplomatic relations have continued to deepen through frequent all-level exchanges, culminating in the official upgrade of bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership on the occasion of the 75th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2025.

In terms of trade and investment, bilateral cooperation has seen clear progress, with two-way trade more than doubling from US$848 million in 2022 to around $2.3 billion in 2025. The successful operation of the Skoda automobile manufacturing plant underscores the strong potential for cooperation and the growing complementarity between the two economies.

The FM also noted that bilateral cooperation in other areas such as defence - security, education - training, science - technology, culture - tourism, and people-to-people exchanges has continued to be promoted, giving greater substance to the Việt Nam–Czech Strategic Partnership.

Trung proposed several key orientations to further advance the bilateral ties in the coming time, showing the hope that, with his extensive experience, deep understanding of Việt Nam and in his new position, Kmonicek will continue to support and contribute to the Strategic Partnership, making it more intensive, effective, substantive and sustainable.

The Czech Ambassador, for his part, expressed his gratitude to FM Trung and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their close cooperation and strong support, which helped ensure the successful completion of his mission in Việt Nam.

Agreeing with the cooperation orientations mentioned by the Vietnamese official, the diplomat affirmed that, in whatever position he may hold, he will make every effort to further contribute to the Việt Nam – Czech relations.

Kmonicek shared his positive impressions of Việt Nam and its people, particularly the country’s socio-economic development as well as its growing role and position in the region and the world, and affirmed that the Czech Republic always regards Việt Nam as one of its top priority partners in Asia and wishes to expand comprehensive cooperation with Việt Nam across spheres in the time ahead.

Trung took the occasion to thank the Czech Republic for its support and favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in the country to stabilise their lives, integrate successfully, and make positive contributions to the traditional friendship between the two nations. — VNA/VNS