(VOVworld) – Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang on Tuesday held talks with Austrian President Heinz Fisher, who is on an official visit to Vietnam until Thursday. At the talks, both sides agreed to increase the exchange of high-level visits and contacts to create momentum for the development of bilateral cooperative ties. They also agreed to jointly organize activities to mark the 40th anniversary of Vietnam-Austria diplomatic relations from now until the end of the year. Both leaders stressed on the need to strengthen investment between the two countries by facilitating each others’ entrepreneurs to do business. They said that it’s necessary to boost cooperation in infrastructure, transport, new energy, health care, environment, and water management. Both sides agreed to work together in multilateral forums and at major international organizations such as the United Nations.
President Sang asked Austria to continue its support for Vietnam to promote its comprehensive ties with the EU and pledged Vietnam’s readiness to serve as a bridge for Austria to advance ties with ASEAN.
On this occasion, Vietnam and Austria signed memoranda of understanding on cooperation in industry, trade, energy and tourism. A cooperative agreement between Vietnam’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Austria’s Chamber of Economics was also signed. Austria also agreed to provide ODA for Vietnam in health care, firefighting and vocational training.
At a media briefing after the signing ceremony, President Truong Tan Sang said: “In an atmosphere of openness and mutual trust, we agree that the bilateral ties in the recent past have been growing positively and extensively in many areas. There has an agreement on directions and measures to exchange high-level visits and contacts. In this spirit, we highly appreciate the President’s visit, which will play an important role in bringing bilateral ties to a new height. The visit is of great significance as the two countries are celebrating the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties”.
President Heinz Fisher said Austria is one of European countries that has been supporting Vietnam over the past 40 years and will continue to support Vietnam during its national development process: “While preparing for this visit, both countries worked on some agreements and MoU and we are glad that today the signing ceremony of such documents was held. For example, the MoU on health care, building hospital, tourism and vocational training are basic factors for Vietnam’s development”.
The same day, visiting Austrian President met separately with Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.