National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ and Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér during their virtual talk on Monday. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam treasures and wants to enhance cooperation with Hungary – its first comprehensive partner in Central and Eastern Europe, Chairman of the National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ said on Monday.

During his online talks with Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér, Huệ spoke highly of the fact that Hungary has considered Việt Nam a priority partner in its official development assistance (ODA) policy, with preferential loans worth 440 million euros committed to projects in priority fields for bilateral cooperation.   

He also welcomed the decision to soon establish a Hungarian culture and community centre in Việt Nam. 

For his part, Kövér expressed his hope that Vietnamese and Hungarian agencies will further discuss mechanisms to promote bilateral cooperation in various spheres, including information technology and telecoms, during a meeting of the joint committee of the two governments in October.

Vietnamese firms should regard Hungary as a bridge to boost their investment in Europe, he said.

The two leaders noted with pleasure new development steps in bilateral economic ties, saying despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade still reached about US$1.3 billion last year, up 40 per cent from the previous year.

However, they said, bilateral trade has remained unstable and yet to match the potential of the two countries.

Regarding legislative ties, they agreed to maintain the exchange of delegations and continue their mutual support and sharing of experience in law building, supervision over the operations of the State apparatus, and personnel training.

The two sides will also hold more symposiums and increase exchanges between friendship parliamentarians’ groups, and female and young legislators, to raise mutual understanding and strengthen ties between the two legislatures while beefing up cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums.

The leaders agreed that the Vietnamese community in Hungary play an important role in people-to-people diplomacy. — VNS