Moscow (VNA) – National Assembly(NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of RussiaVyacheslav V. Volodin held talks in Moscow on December 11 as part of theformer’s official visit to Russia.

The host said his country attaches importance tothe trip by the NA Chairwoman, during which the two officials co-chaired thefirst meeting of the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee between theVietnamese NA and the State Duma of Russia.

With this new cooperation mechanism, the twoparliaments will further enhance the comprehensive strategic partnershipbetween their countries, according to him.

Chairwoman Ngan said Vietnam is delighted at theenormous achievements the Russian people have obtained that have helped furtherraise Russia’s stature in the region and the world.

Vietnam always treasures and is determined tostrengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia in anincreasingly substantive manner so as to meet the two peoples’ interests, sheaffirmed.

The country always views parliamentarycooperation as an important field in the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategicpartnership, she said, adding that it highly valued the State Duma Chairman’sinitiative to set up the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee, which isthe highest parliamentary cooperation mechanism of the Vietnamese NA atpresent.

The top legislator of Vietnam also applauded themutual support and close coordination between the countries’ parliamentarybodies in the international arena, as well as their active participation inmultilateral forums they have organised.

As Chair of the 41st General Assembly of theASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), the Vietnamese NA will continue topromote the strategic partnership between ASEAN and Russia, thus helping toraise Russia’s standing in the region for peace, stability and development inthe world, she said.

Ngan also asked both sides to increase exchangeand cooperation between the parliaments, parliamentary agencies andparliamentary friendship groups; boost the sharing of information about eachcountry’s parliamentary activities; step up coordination in supervising andpromoting the implementation of cooperation agreements signed between the twoGovernments; perfect legal frameworks; an support the countries’ Governments,localities, businesses and people to bolster win-win cooperation.

According to the chairwoman, bilateral economic,trade and investment ties have enjoyed progress since the free trade agreementbetween Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Russia is a member,took effect in October 2016. Their trade reached 4.5 billion USD in 2018, up 30percent from 2017, and 3.4 billion USD in the first nine months of 2019.

Meanwhile, partnerships in energy, oil and gasremain an important pillar in economic links, she said, noting that during thevisit, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue held talks with hisRussian counterpart Dmitry Kozak to discuss cooperation in this domain and seekways to tackle difficulties facing each project.

TheNA leader also conveyed to the Russian PM the proposal by his Vietnamesecounterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc on telephone talks between the two so as to agreeon the principles and advocates to deal with the concrete issues in thebilateral cooperation.

Sheproposed that in the cooperation mechanism of the Vietnam – Russiainter-parliamentary cooperation committee, the law-making bodies of the twocountries accelerate, review and supervise the implementation of the agreementsand projects. Besides, authorities of the two countries should consider andexpand the permission for their businesses to export agricultural and aquaticproducts.

Theleader stressed that room for economic cooperation, trade and investmentbetween the two countries remains large, and expressed her hope that Russiawill increase cooperation with Vietnam in the fields it has advantages andVietnam has demand.

Shethanked Russia for increasing its scholarship for Vietnamese students to 1,000each year, said she hopes the two legislatures will facilitate the issuance ofvisas for Vietnamese citizens to Russia provide legal support to the signing,ratifying and implementing the inter-governmental agreement on the sending ofVietnamese to work in Russia.

Duringthe talks, Ngan informed her host of the socio-economic situation in Vietnam,stressing that Vietnam will continue to persistently implement its foreignpolicy of independence, self-mastery, cooperation and development.

Asfor the situation in the East Sea, Vietnam highly values Russia’s stance on theissue, under which Russia supports the settlement of the differences bypeaceful measures, on the basis of international law, first of all the 1982 UNConvention on the Law of the Sea, contributing to the maintenance of peace,stability, freedom, safety and security of navigation and aviation in the EastSea; and support to the serious and full implementation of the Declaration onConduct of the Parties in the East Sea and proceeding to the completion of theCode of Conduct of the sides in the East Sea at an early date.

Forhis part, the Russian leader held that the two countries are quite able toachieve the goal of bilateral trade of 10 billion USD in the time to come. Theutilisation of the Vietnam – Russia inter-parliamentary cooperation committeeshould be made to assess the outcome of the recent cooperation, he said.

Volodinalso stressed that the two sides will try to find out the causes of thedecrease in the relations of bilateral trade this year so as to boost theeconomic relations and trade and investment between the two countries, on thebasis of which concrete decisions will be made for the two countries to bringit to the level of 10 billion USD./.