Hanoi (VNA) – Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation arrived in the Jean –Lesage Airport in Quebec on June 8 morning (local time) to attend the Group ofSeven (G7) Outreach Summit and visit Canada from June 8-10 at the invitation ofCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Vietnamese leader was welcomed atthe airport by Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast GuardDominic LeBlanc, officials from Quebec State and Vietnamese Ambassador toCanada Nguyen Duc Hoa.

The G7 Outreach Summit will be heldin Charlevoix, Quebec on June 8 and 9 with the participation of leaders of theworld’s seven advanced economies, namely Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,the UK and the US, and several guests, including Vietnam.

The agenda of this year’s summitfocuses on gender equality and women empowerment, investment in inclusivegrowth, preparations to adapt to job placements in future, cooperation torespond to climate change and protect oceans, and the building of a morepeaceful and safer world.

In addition to participating in theG7 Outreach Summit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will attend a display ofsmart technology for the future at the Laval University and meet with leadersof Quebec State.

He also plans to attend and address a Vietnam - Canada business seminar andmeet with leaders of several countries participating in the G7 Summit and the G7Outreach Summit.

On June 10, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will welcome and hold talkswith his Vietnamese counterpart.
 
Vietnam and Canada establisheddiplomatic ties in 1973 and began the exchange of high-ranking delegationssince 1994. During a visit by Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister Pham Binh Minh in September 2014, the foreign ministers of Vietnam andCanada signed a Letter of Intent on consolidating and boosting bilateralrelations. In September 2016, when Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dionvisited Vietnam, the two sides agreed to promote cooperation in seven fieldsmentioned in the Letter of Intent, with a focus on trade-investment andeducation-training.

On the occasion of Canadian PrimeMinister Justin Trudeau’s official visit to Vietnam in November 2017, the twocountries issued a joint statement on the establishment of their comprehensivepartnership, which set forth basic principles for bilateral relations alongwith orientations and measures to foster bilateral partnership in the sevenfields of politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, development cooperation,defence-security, culture-education, science-technology, and people-to-peopleexchange.

Vietnam is currently Canada’s biggesttrade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with bilateraltrade reaching nearly 5 billion USD in 2017. Canada ranks 14th among 112nations and territories investing in Vietnam with 149 projects worth a total of4.1 billion USD.

Recently, Canada announced officialdevelopment assistance (ODA) for a project to develop cooperatives in Vietnam,another to help the country respond to climate change and two others on foodsafety.

Bilateral cooperation in educationand training is enjoying strong growth, with the number of Vietnamese studentsin Canada rising twofold in the past 10 years to 12,000, the largest amongASEAN countries.-VNA