Prague (VNA) - The official visit to the Czech Republic from November 13-16 to Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan, taking place when both countries are looking forward to celebrating the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in early 2025, will help create new momentum to lift the bilateral traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation to a higher level.

The statement was made by Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Duong Hoai Nam while granting an interview to the Vietnam News Agency’s correspondents in Prague on the threshold of the trip, which will be made at an invitation of Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

Within the framework of this visit, Xuan is expected to meet with the highest-level leaders of the Czech Republic to discuss measures to promote comprehensive cooperation across key areas such as politics-diplomacy, economy-trade-investment, science-technology, innovation, education-training, culture, sports, tourism, sustainable development, and people-to-people exchange, he said.

"This aims to further deepen the existing collaboration foundations, explore additional potential areas for cooperation, and open up new opportunities for joint work between the two nations," he stressed.

Regarding the bilateral relations, the diplomat said that in the security and economic strategies recently announced by the Czech government, Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific region play key roles, and are targets for advancing diplomatic relations and promoting trade-investment cooperation. The security strategy was put into practice through the visits of Prime Minister Petr Fiala to four Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, in April 2023.

Nam cited Czech statistics as showing that bilateral trade reached 2.9 billion USD in 2023, up 19% year-on-year, and is projected to hit 3.8 billion USD this year, an increase of 28%.

To fully tap the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and strengthen cooperation in areas with significant potential, he noted the two sides should prioritise initiating negotiations on and signing their education and labour agreement for a new phase, working towards the establishment of a direct flight route between Hanoi and Prague, and expanding collaboration into other promising areas such as green transition, digital transformation, renewable energy, and mining.

The strong traditional friendship and the support of high-level leaders serve as a solid foundation to strengthen political trust between the two countries, thus making the Vietnam-Czech Republic relationship more intensive, substantive and effective, and for the benefits of the two countries' people and for peace and stability iꦜn the region and the world, added the ambassador./.