Doha (VNA) – Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jasim Al-Thani hosted a welcome ceremony in Doha on October 31 for his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh, who is paying an official visit to Qatar.

Following the ceremony, the two leaders held talks.

Qatar is the final stop on PM Chinh’s trip to three Middle East countries. This marks the first official visit by a Vietnamese Prime Minister to Qatar in 15 years and comes at a time when the bilateral relations are flourishing, yielding numerous tangible results. However, both sides have recognised that there remains significant potential to further enhance bilateral cooperation, particularly in promising areas such as politics-diplomacy, economy, energy, tourism, and labour.

Therefore, the visit aims to promote the relationship in a more comprehensive and effective fashion, particularly in market opening, high-quality investment attraction, and cooperation in labour, education, culture, sports, tourism, people-to-people exchange, and climate change response, as well as emerging fields like science -technology, clean energy, digital transformation, innovation, and the Halal industry.

Vietnam and Qatar officially established their diplomatic relations on February 8, 1993. Over the past 30 years, thanks to the efforts of high-ranking leaders and people of both countries, their multifaceted cooperation has seen significant developments in various fields.

Last year, two-way trade enjoyed a year-on-year surge of 32% to 497.2 million USD. Vietnam’s main imports included gas, plastics, and chemicals, while its key exports were aquatic products, eleಞctrical wires and cables, wooden products, and bamboo products./.