Hanoi (VNA) – In 2023, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) celebratethe 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties (August1, 1993-2023) and officially start negotiations on the Vietnam-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

On the occasion, the UAE Ambassador to Vietnam, Bader Almatrooshi, grants aninterview to the Vietnam News Agency on the development of bilateral ties overthe past 30 years and prospects of the relations in the new period.

The following is the full text of the interview.

Question 1: The relationship betweenVietnam and the UAE has been thrivingwith numerous positive results achieved over the past 30 years.Could you please share some outstanding cooperative achievements between the two countries?

Answer: I want to seize thisopportunity to extend my sincere congratulations to the leaderships both in UAEand Vietnam on the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations. It isdefinitely an important occasion as we are celebrating many achievements.

The UAE is the biggesttrade partner to Vietnam in the Middle East with non-oil trade balance of 8.7billion dollars recorded last year. In addition to that, both countries heldthe first round of negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreementwhich makes the UAE the first Arab country to negotiate and hopefully sign thisagreement soon. Another achievement is holding a business forum last monthwhich was attended by 80 companies from both countries.

The relations were complemented this year by the visit of Her Excellency Vo Thi Anh Xuan, VicePresident and meetings with His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,President of UAE along with other officials from public and private sectors.Also three Ministers made official visits including the visit of His HighnessSheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and HisExcellency Dr. Thani AlZeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade of the UAEto Vietnam, and His Excellency Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Industry and Tradeof Vietnam to the UAE.

The UAE believes in thepotentiality of relations growth and one out of many steps being taken is theopening of a representative office of Dubai Chamber in HCM city on the 20th ofJuly. Another important development is the growing partnership between Dubaibased Passport Logistics Program and many Vietnamese entities and companiesthat aim at expanding and enhancing logistics experience worldwide.

Question 2: What are the promising areas ofcooperation between the two countries and the plans to expand those areas in the time ahead?

Answer: There is definitely a vast space to expandtrade exchange especially with the qualifications the two countries possess.The ongoing efforts by the two governments and private sector would contributeto increasing the numbers. In addition, many companies on different levels areexploring expanding their investments or starting new ones in the two countrieswhich reflects the trust and commitment to the economic relations.

Energy in general and renewables in particularis one of the sectors that both countries believe in its importance. The UAEalso gives a big attention to food security and ,therefore, a number of UAEleading companies in this field are exploring different options ofcollaboration. While UAE logistics companies do exist in Vietnam such as Emiratesairlines and Dubai Ports World, there is a space to expand further especiallyknowing that logistics would contribute to the overall trade potentiality.

As the UAE prepares for the 28th Conferenceof the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), theparticipation of Vietnam will mark another important development in therelations as we expect high level and active private sector engagement.

Innovation and knowledge exchange is animportant aspect that the two countries are taking steps to solidify.Furthermore, culture and people to people connection is of a high attention bythe governments and, therefore, there are plans to host cultural activities inboth countries./.