Hanoi (VNA) – The official visit to Hungary by Prime Minister PhamMinh Chinh, as part of his trip to Europe from January 16-23, is expected to contributeto consolidating political trust and deepening the Vietnam-Hungarycomprehensive partnership in all fields.

Vietnam and Hungary set up their diplomaticties on February 3, 1950. Since then, the two nations have stood side by sidewith and supported each other during the wartime, and in the current national buildingcause. Bilateral friendship and cooperation have developed well in variousfields such as education and training, legal and judicial affairs, culture,sports, and people-to-people exchanges.

In recent years, their politicalrelationship has been tightened on the basis of mutual trust and understanding,with all-level and high-level delegation exchanges held in all Party,Government, National Assembly and locality channels.

Vietnam and Hungary have also cooperated closely and effectively and supportedeach other at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations and withinthe Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) framework. The Hungarian government supportedVietnam to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the2020-2021 term, while Vietnam backed Hungary's entry into the United NationsEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOS) for the 2011-2013 term. In addition,within the ASEM framework, Vietnam has supported Hungary’sinitiative on the role of water resources in the regional sustainable developmentstrategy, and is also ready to assist Hungary in strengthening cooperation withASEAN and its member countries.

Hungary actively advocated the approval ofthe EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and was the first EU member stateto ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Two-way trade reached 850 million USD in 2023, and the two countries arestriving to achieve an annual trade growth rate of 10%.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Hungary Nguyen ThiBich Thao said that bilateral trade ties are not commensurate with availablepotential despite the growth. She suggested the two sides increase trade exchanges to exploit theirstrengths, and supplement each other.

Regarding investment, as of December 20, 2023, Hungary ranked 52nd out of 144 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 21projects totalling 72.26 million USD.

Hungary considers Vietnam a prioritypartner in its international development support policy. Labour is a potentialarea of cooperation between the two countries. Since 2018, more than 1,000Vietnamese people have travelled to work at factories and companies in theEuropean nation. According to head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Hungary TranNgoc Ha, Hungary is currently experiencing a labour shortage, while Vietnam hasan abundant, industrious and skilled workforce. He affirmed that the Vietnameseside always accompanies, creates favourable conditions and supports businessesfrom the two sides to promote bilateral economic and trade relations.

PM Chinh’s official visit, made at aninvitation of his counterpart Viktor Orbán, has been the first delegationexchange at the prime ministerial level between the two countries over the past seven years.

In the context of Hungary assuming therotating President of the EU in the last 6 months of 2024, this trip is also expected to be an opportunity for Vietnam to strengthen coordination with theEU on regional and global issues, and speed up the ratification of the EVIPA./.