The friendly and cooperative relationship between Vietnam and Canada is constantly strengthened and developed.

The friendly and cooperative relationship between Canada and Vietnam has been continuously strengthened and developed since its official establishment on August 21, 1973, with extremely important milestones in all fields, notably the exchange of high-level delegations, contacts and meetings between senior leaders of the two countries on the sidelines of international multilateral conferences and forums that take place quite frequently with many substantive contents. Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Pham Vinh Quang affirmed: We can mention the visit to Vietnam by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1994, on which occasion Canada opened the Embassy office in Hanoi , and the visit to Canada by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in 2005, when the two sides established the framework of "comprehensive, stable and long-term cooperation", or on the occasion of the visit to Vietnam by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2017, the two sides established the framework of Comprehensive Partnership.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Pham Vinh Quang mentioned measures to promote the Vietnam-Canada relationship to continue developing in the coming time. Photo: Trung Dung - VNA

Since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership, the two countries have had basic principles guiding the bilateral relationship. The directions and measures to promote cooperation are focused on 7 areas: Politics - diplomacy, trade - investment, development cooperation, defense - security, culture - education, science - technology and people-to-people exchange. In particular, special attention is paid to the fields of trade - investment and education and training. Since 1990, Canada has always been among the leading countries in development assistance to Vietnam with a total ODA value of about 2 billion Canadian dollars (about 1.4 billion USD). Regarding education and training, there were about 21,000 Vietnamese students studying at all levels in Canada before the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, the number of Vietnamese students has decreased, but Vietnam still ranks 3rd among countries with the most international students in Canada. People-to-people and youth exchanges have become an important foundation for the sustainable development of relations between the two countries. Many localities and regions of Vietnam have received valuable support from Canada in capital and technical support projects related to rural agriculture and climate change adaptation.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to Canada Pham Vinh Quang, in a meeting with Governor General of Canada Mary Jeannie May Simon, affirmed: The leaders and people of Vietnam wish to maintain, comprehensively develop and further deepen the Comprehensive Partnership between the two countries established in 2017. Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh said that on Vietnam's path of development and international integration, Canada has always been one of the leading important partners, the second largest trading partner, after the United States, in the American continent. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the bridgehead, the gateway for Canada to enter the Southeast Asia and Asia -Pacific regions. Vietnam is Canada's leading trading partner in ASEAN, Canada's 6th largest trading partner in the group of 40 Indo-Pacific countries.

Ambassador Pham Vinh Quang and Governor General of Canada Mary Jeannie May Simon (Photo: Vietnamese Embassy in Canada). Internet photo.

For her part, Governor General Mary J. Simon believed that the Ambassador would make many contributions to the increasingly effective and substantive development of the Vietnam-Canada Comprehensive Partnership in the coming years. Expressing her delight at the increasingly deep and effective development of the bilateral relationship, Governor General Mary J. Simon believed that the two sides would continue to strengthen cooperation and coordination on regional, international and global issues such as climate change, thereby contributing to maintaining peace, stability and prosperous development in the Indo- Pacific region as well as in the world. Governor General Mary J. May Simon expressed her interest and admiration for Vietnam, a country with thousands of years of history and cultural traditions, and emphasized that Canada is a multi-ethnic country. She personally is the first female Governor General of indigenous origin in Canada, and wants to strengthen cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchange between the two countries, sharing experiences in gathering, uniting and promoting the strength of ethnic groups. Governor General Mary J. May Simon also affirmed that the Vietnamese community in Canada plays an important role, actively contributing to the prosperous development and enriching the cultural and ethnic diversity of Canada./.

Le Quang