President Truong Tan Sang and Russian President Putin. Photo: VNA

Vietnam and Russia are expected to sign 15 cooperation deals across economics, energy, science-technology, education, health care and military affairs during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s November 12 visit, which promise to usher in a new era of bilateral ties.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son unveiled the information during a recent interview with a Russia-based Vietnam News Agency correspondent on the upcoming visit, which is made at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

The ambassador said the trip, the third made to Vietnam by Putin, reflects not only the president’s personal interest in the country but also that of his countrymen who wish to see a promotion in ties.

President Putin and Vietnamese leaders will review their bilateral cooperation since both nations established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2012 and discuss steps to further cement ties in the coming time.

They will also explore the ways to continue their coordination at key global forums.

According to Ambassador Son, the two countries’ long-established and crucial links in the oil and gas field has progressed outstandingly since 2010.

With the Vietsovpetro joint venture located in Vietnam, both sides have a;sp established another joint-venture named RusVietPetro which specialises in oil and gas production in Russia’s northern autonomous region Nenets. In 2011, the volume of tapped oil topped 1.5 million tonnes.

PetroVietnam and Rosneft – the largest oil and gas group in the world – have struck a lot of key deals on oil and gas surveying, exploration, processing and consumption in Russia, Vietnam and the third countries.

Vietnam has benefited from oil and gas cooperation with Russia not only in economics but also in security affairs and sea and island sovereignty and integrity defence.

Power energy cooperation has entered new, strategic and long-term development steps. In late 2010, Vietnam and Russia signed an energy cooperation scheme that devised seven prioritised cooperation approaches and a roadmap. In 2010-2011, an agreement on Russia’s supply of credit to Vietnam to build a nuclear power plant was inked.

In defence, Russia recently handed over modern sub-marine Kilo to Vietnam, which is expected to help Vietnam contribute more to maintaining peace, stability, security and cooperation in the East Sea.

In the coming time, the two countries will work to speed up negotiations on a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Union of Customs of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus to make it easier for Vietnamese goods to enter these markets.

Son affirmed that Vietnam continues considering the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia as one of the top priorities in its diplomatic policies and economics, trade, investment, science-technology, defence and security will continue to be in the cornerstone of the bilateral cooperation.

In January-August, two-way trade between Vietnam and Russia hit about 2.5 billion USD. Of the figure, Vietnam exported 1.7 billion USD to the European country, largely oil and gas, metal, fertilisers, chemicals and machinery. The trade figure is expected to reach 4 billion USD this year.

As Vietnam’s 19 th biggest foreign investor, Russia is investing in 93 projects worth nearly 2 billion USD in the country, covering oil and gas, heavy and light industries, transport, post and aquaculture. Since 2010, Vietnam has poured capital in 17 projects valued at about 2.4 billion USD in Russia.

VNA