Vietnam - Brazil: Determined to bring bilateral trade to 15 billion USD by 2030

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Lula da Silva agreed to continue to elevate and further concretize the Strategic Partnership framework, bringing cooperation in all fields to a new height, meeting the potential and development needs of the two countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Brazilian President Lula da Silva - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Within the framework of the State visit to Vietnam of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the afternoon of March 28, at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh welcomed President Lula da Silva and the high-ranking Brazilian delegation to Vietnam; recalled his deep impressions of the country and people of Brazil and his meetings with President Lula da Silva, most recently during his official visit to Brazil in September 2023 and the bilateral talks in November 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, where the two sides issued a Declaration on upgrading bilateral relations to a Strategic Partnership.

President Lula da Silva expressed his pleasure to meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh again during his second visit to Vietnam after 17 years, witnessing Vietnam's achievements after nearly 40 years of Doi Moi; highly appreciating and congratulating the Vietnamese Government on its recent socio-economic management results. The President reaffirmed that Brazil always attaches importance to the Strategic Partnership with Vietnam, and considers Vietnam a gateway to strengthen relations with the potential Asia-Pacific region.

The two leaders agreed to continue to elevate and further concretize the Strategic Partnership framework, bringing cooperation in all fields to a new height, meeting the potential and development needs of the two countries. In that spirit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Lula da Silva especially welcomed the recent signing of the Action Plan to implement the Vietnam - Brazil Strategic Partnership; affirmed to continue to closely coordinate to implement the agreed directions and measures to concretize the new relationship framework for the 2025-2030 period in an effective and substantive manner.

President Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also expressed satisfaction with the impressive development of bilateral trade, with turnover reaching approximately 8 billion USD in 2024, and reaffirmed their determination to bring bilateral turnover to 15 billion USD by 2030.

The two sides agreed to increase the sharing of good experiences in national governance and socio-economic policy implementation; strengthen scientific and technological cooperation, especially in fundamental industries such as manufacturing, supporting industries, agricultural processing, new materials, chemicals, and renewable energy, contributing to supporting the green and sustainable growth goals of the two countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked President Lula da Silva and the Brazilian Government for their decision to recognize Vietnam's market economy status, which will facilitate businesses of the two countries to access each other's markets in a fair and mutually beneficial manner.

The Prime Minister welcomed large Brazilian enterprises considering investing in Vietnam. The Prime Minister affirmed that he will direct Vietnamese ministries and sectors to create favorable conditions for Brazilian enterprises' trade and investment activities in Vietnam, especially in the fields of aviation and minerals.

President Lula da Silva agreed to direct Brazilian authorities to actively consider Vietnam’s proposal to soon start negotiations on a trade agreement framework between Vietnam and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) to facilitate businesses of both sides to access each other’s markets and connect supply chains, bringing about substantial results for businesses and people of both countries.

The two leaders also agreed to promote delegations at ministerial, sectoral, local and business levels from Brazil to continue exchanges during and immediately after the Brazilian President's visit to concretize high-level bilateral agreements; agreed to regularly, effectively and flexibly implement the Joint Economic-Trade Committee and Political Consultation mechanism, and establish appropriate mechanisms to regularly review and coordinate the implementation of the new relationship framework.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Lula da Silva shared views on a number of international issues, agreed to support efforts to enhance the effectiveness, democracy and transparency of global governance mechanisms, and continue to closely coordinate and support each other at international organizations and multilateral forums.

On this occasion, President Lula da Silva respectfully invited Vietnam to send a high-level delegation to attend the BRICS Summit and the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) in Brazil in 2025.

On the morning of March 28, at the Presidential Palace, right after the solemn official welcoming ceremony, President Luong Cuong held talks with President Lula da Silva. In an open, sincere and trusting atmosphere, President Luong Cuong and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva informed each other about the socio-economic development of each country, reviewed and evaluated the bilateral relationship over the past time, and discussed and agreed on directions and measures to continue developing the Vietnam-Brazil Strategic Partnership in an increasingly deeper, more substantial and effective manner, as well as discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern.

President Luong Cuong and President Lula da Silva at talks - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

In the context of the global economy facing many challenges and difficulties, the two sides noted that economic and trade relations continue to grow strongly, reaching nearly 8 billion USD by 2024. Brazil has always maintained its position as Vietnam's largest trade partner in Latin America and Vietnam is Brazil's leading trade partner in ASEAN. In that spirit, the two leaders agreed to direct relevant agencies to strengthen measures to facilitate bilateral trade and investment relations, and discussed the possibility of initiating negotiations on a preferential trade agreement between Vietnam and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

President Lula da Silva announced that the Brazilian Government has decided to join the group of more than 70 countries that have recognized Vietnam as a market economy. The President thanked the Brazilian Government for recognizing Vietnam as a market economy, demonstrating its recognition of Vietnam's progress in economic reform and international integration, contributing to promoting bilateral relations, towards achieving the goal of bringing bilateral trade turnover to 15 billion USD by 2030. The two leaders agreed to assign the Ministers to continue discussing and specifying measures to implement this important decision.

Immediately after the talks, President Luong Cuong and President Lula da Silva and the high-ranking delegations of the two countries witnessed the signing ceremony and exchange of bilateral cooperation documents, including: (1) Action Plan to implement the Strategic Partnership; (2) Agreement on paid employment for relatives of diplomatic staff; (3) Government-level Agreement on the exchange and protection of confidential information; (4) Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a Working Group to promote trade and industrial cooperation between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Ministry of Industrial Development, Trade and Services of Brazil; (5) Memorandum of Understanding on football cooperation between the Vietnam Football Federation and the Brazilian Football Confederation.

On the morning of March 28, at the Party Central Committee Headquarters, General Secretary To Lam received President Lula da Silva, who is on a State visit to Vietnam from March 27-29. At the meeting, General Secretary To Lam highly appreciated the results of the talks between President Lula da Silva and President Luong Cuong and the fact that the two sides signed the Action Plan to implement the Vietnam-Brazil Strategic Partnership for the period 2025-2030 during this visit, along with cooperation documents in the fields of diplomacy, security, trade-industry and between the two football federations.

The General Secretary affirmed that the Party and State of Vietnam attach importance to Brazil, a leading partner in Vietnam's overall foreign policy in the Latin American region - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The General Secretary discussed with the Brazilian President major directions and measures to further strengthen the friendship, continue to deepen the relationship, achieve substantive results, and take advantage of each country's strengths and potential.

The two leaders agreed on important directions to strengthen the strategic partnership bilaterally and multilaterally; emphasizing the effective implementation of signed cooperation documents through channels, which is an important basis to promote the potential of bilateral cooperation between the two countries, meeting the expectations of both sides.

General Secretary To Lam also appreciated Brazil's decision to recognize Vietnam's market economy status, thereby facilitating bilateral trade; and suggested that the two sides coordinate to promote negotiations on a preferential trade framework to help connect Vietnam and the Southern Common Market.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/viet-nam-brazil-quyet-tam-dua-thuong-mai-song-phuong-len-15-ty-usd-vao-nam-2030-162014.html