Vietnam, Russia foster cooperation
Vietnam: Vietnam is aiming at stronger strategic cooperation with
Russia, mainly in oil and nuclear energy.
This is a widespread opinion here in the wake of a visit by Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Hanoi over the weekend, including
meetings with all top Vietnamese leaders.
In official talks with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister Pham Gia Khiem, the parties reviewed energy collaboration,
mainly in oil prospecting and exploitation in the Vietnamese sea
platform.
Khiem expressed Russia's willingness to have a more significant role
in key Vietnamese energy, infrastructural and high technology projects.
As a strategic partner of the Russian Federation in the Asia-Pacific
region, Vietnam witnessed a 30-percent growth in bilateral trade in
2008, reaching $1.50 billion.
Crude oil and gas are key bilateral cooperation fields. The
Vietsovpetro joint venture has been operating in Vietnam for over 30
years and its peer, recently created Rusvietpetro is expected to exploit
fields in the Russian Yamuko-Nenetshki region.
The use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes looms large as a field
of cooperation with broad prospects in the wake of the signing of a
memorandum between Russian state-run Rosatom Corporation and the
Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology, in the presence of Khiem
and Lavrov.
In remarks about his visit, Lavrov said that the Moscow-Hanoi
strategic alliance will reach its 60th anniversary in 2010, which will
be a golden opportunity for a visit to Vietnam by President Dmitri
Medvedev.
Hanoi, Prensa Latina
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