Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will pay an officialvisit to Myanmar from December 16 – 18 at the invitation of Myanmar President UWin Myint.

His trip to the country affirms that Vietnam highly values the comprehensivecooperative partnership with Myanmar, and wants to step up bilateral collaborationin the fields of trade, investment and security – defence.

Bilateral ties have unceasinglydeveloped

Vietnam and Myanmar have enjoyed a sound traditional friendship, the foundationof which was laid by President Ho Chi Minh and Hero Aung San.

Myanmar was one of the first Southeast Asian countries to set up friendly tieswith Vietnam. In 1947, Vietnam established its first liaison office in Yangon.The two sides agreed to upgrade the liaison office to an information andpropaganda office in 1948, and to Consulate General in 1957. The two countriesthen officially set up their diplomatic ties on May 28, 1975.

Sharing a multitude of similarities in history and culture, Vietnam and Myanmarstood shoulder-by-shoulder and gave whole-hearted support to each other duringthe national struggle for independence in the past and the national constructionnowadays.

Their comprehensive cooperative partnership, established in August 2017, hasbeen fortified, particularly the political trust has been consolidated through party,state, parliamentary, and people-to-people exchange channels.  

During a visit by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi toVietnam in 2018, the two countries’ leaders issued a joint statement expressingsatisfaction at the positive progress in bilateral cooperation in past years.

The defence relations have been deepened, with theeffective implementation of signed agreements in multilateral and bilateralframeworks and the exchange of military delegations at all levels. The twosides are expanding cooperation to training, military medicine, search andrescue activities, sport exchange, information sharing, military technicaltechnologies, among others.

Vietnam and Myanmar have also intensified security cooperation, with thesigning of  the bilateral agreement oncooperation in prevention of crimes and fighting transnational crimes duringthe 3rd Ministerial Meeting on Security Cooperation in February thisyear.

Furthermore, the two nations have worked closely at regional and internationalforums such as the ASEAN, the United Nations, CLMV meetings, Ayeyawady- ChaoPhraya- Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit, and the East West EconomicCorridor conferences.

Economic and trade cooperation – ahighlight in bilateral ties

Both nations have enjoyed a thriving economic and trade cooperation, withtwo-way trade hitting 859.9 million USD in 2018, up 3.8 percent from theprevious year, and 790 million USD during January-October in 2019, ayear-on-year surge of 9.3 percent.

Vietnam has sustained its position as the 7th largest foreigninvestor in Myanmar with nearly 2.2 billion USD invested in the nation. Major Vietnameseinvestors in the country are Viettel, FPT, Eurowindow, and Dong A Group.

Regarding agriculture, both sides are working toward the signing of aMemorandum of Understanding on agricultural cooperation to improve and increasevalue of farm produce such as maize, rice, and bean.

The two countries have also promoted transport cooperation by carrying out awide range of transport projects in the East-West Economic Corridor, andschemes to connect land roads and coastal waterways that help facilitate tradeand tourism cooperation and people-to-people exchange among regional countries.

The tourism cooperation plan during 2016-2018 has been on the right track aswell. Besides launching direct flights in 2011, the two countries haveorganised many tourism fairs, and engaged in joint tourism cooperationactivities.

Several localities of the two countries have establishedties, such as Hanoi-Nay Pyi Taw, Da Nang-Mandaly and Ho Chi Minh City-Yangon. /.