Warsaw (VNA) ▨– Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on January 16 afternoon (local time) as part of his official visit to the European country.

President Duda spoke highly of the official visit of PM Chinh and the high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Government as the two countries are celebrating the 75th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations (1950-2025). He believed that the visit to Poland by a Vietnamese PM after many years will create a turning point to further promote the Poland - Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. The President highly evaluated Vietnam's role in the Asia-Pacific region. President Duda recalled good memories of his visit to Vietnam in 2017 and his meeting with PM Chinh on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, in June 2024. He was delighted with the positive development in relations between the two countries in recent times, affirming that Poland always considers Vietnam as its most important partner in Southeast Asia and wants to develop cooperative ties with Vietnam in all fields. PM Chinh congratulated Poland on its impressive achievements in the process of socio-economic development and European integration, contributing to enhancing Poland's role and position in the region, and highly appreciated President Duda's contributions to Poland. He respectfully conveyed the regards of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee To Lam, State President Luong Cuong, and Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man to President Duda. The PM thanked the Polish leaders and people for their sincere and respectful welcome to the Vietnamese delegation and announced the results of the very successful talks with PM Donald Tusk. He emphasised that the Vietnamese people always remember the valuable support and assistance the Polish people gave to Vietnam in the past struggle for national independence and reunification as well as in the current process of socio-economic development and international integration. PM Chinh affirmed that although time has changed, the friendship between the two peoples will never change. He affirmed that in implementing the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation of international relations, Vietnam always treasures and wants to strengthen relations with traditional friends in the Central and Eastern European region, of which Poland is one of the top priority partners.

At the meeting, the two leaders expressed their joy about the positive development in Vietnam-Poland relations in many fields so that the relationship between the two countries is more intensive, extensive, comprehensive, and inclusive. The two countries have maintained delegation exchanges at all levels across all Party, State, Government, and Parliament channels and people-to-people diplomacy. Economy and trade have become an important highlight in bilateral cooperation. Two-way trade turnover reached over 2.5 billion USD annually since 2020, and hit over 3 billion USD in 2024, making Poland the largest trading partner of Vietnam in Central and Eastern Europe. Cooperation in the fields of education - training, culture - tourism, and agriculture has continued to make important progress. The Polish President highly appreciated Vietnam's decision to waive visas for Polish citizens in 2025 and believed that this move will create a driving force to promote tourism and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Discussing orientations and important measures to develop the bilateral relations in a deeper and more effective manner, the two leaders agreed to continue increasing meetings and exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, to enhance political trust and mutual understanding, as a foundation to soon elevate Vietnam - Poland relations to a strategic level. Regarding economic and trade ties, the two sides agreed to continue fully and effectively implementing the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), creating favourable conditions for each other's goods to enter each side's market. They consented to encourage Polish businesses to promote investment in Vietnam in areas where Poland has strengths such as digital transformation, pharmaceuticals, food industry, manufacturing and processing industry, mineral exploitation and processing. President Duda affirmed his support for early ratification of the EU – Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). President Duda proposed the two sides coordinate closely to implement the agreements reached during PM Chinh’s ongoing visit, making the most of the existing potential and advantages to further step up cooperation between the two countries in key areas, while focusing on promoting the tradition of cooperation in the fields of education - training, culture and people-to-people exchanges of the two countries. President Duda highly appreciated the Vietnamese community’s contributions to Poland. Meanwhile, PM Chinh expressed his gratitude for the support of Polish authorities at all levels for the Vietnamese community in Poland recently and hoped that the community will soon be recognised as an ethnic minority group of Poland to continue deeply integrating into the country, contributing more effectively to the socio-economic development of Poland as well as the good traditional friendship between the two nations. Both host and guest agreed that the two countries would continue to coordinate closely and support each other at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations and the ASEAN - EU cooperation framework, to contribute to peace, cooperation and development in the regions and the world. On this occasion, PM Chinh respectfully conveyed State President Luong Cuong's invitation to President Andrzej Duda to visit Vietnam again soon./.