Vietnam and Kazakhstan upgrade relations to Strategic Partnership

After today's solemn welcoming ceremony, General Secretary To Lam held talks with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that Kazakhstan treasures the good traditional friendship between the two countries. Vietnam is an important partner in the Asia- Pacific region.

General Secretary To Lam thanked the people of Kazakhstan and the President for their warm, thoughtful, and brotherly welcome. The General Secretary highly appreciated President Tokayev's special feelings for Vietnam.

General Secretary To Lam and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev hold talks. Photo: VNA

Vietnam always attaches importance to and gives high priority to relations with traditional friendly countries, including Kazakhstan.

General Secretary To Lam shared about the situation in Vietnam after 40 years of implementing the Doi Moi process, the whole country is striving to enter a new era - the era of national advancement.

The two leaders expressed their delight at the continuous and increasingly substantive and effective development of the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Kazakhstan. General Secretary To Lam’s visit is a historic milestone opening a new phase, with the two sides agreeing to upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership.

The two sides affirmed that the establishment of a new relationship framework will contribute to tightening five connections between the two countries, including: People-to-people connection, economic connection, policy connection, transport connection and inter-regional connection.

President Jomart Tokayev expressed his pride that Kazakhstan is the first country in Central Asia with which Vietnam has established a strategic partnership. He affirmed that this is a historic event in the bilateral relationship, creating a solid foundation for developing all areas of cooperation.

General Secretary To Lam and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev agreed to continue deepening political trust through promoting delegation exchanges, through all channels and people-to-people exchanges, promoting defense-security cooperation, and enhancing cooperation in defense industry and military technology.

The two leaders highly appreciated the progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation. The two economies have great potential for further development, and the Strategic Partnership will breathe new life into economic cooperation, doubling trade turnover in the coming time.

The two sides agreed to enhance the effectiveness of the Vietnam-Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Committee on economic-trade and scientific-technical cooperation; strive to increase bilateral trade turnover to 5 billion USD by 2030.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said he is ready to create the best conditions for Vietnamese businesses to do business in Kazakhstan. The two countries need to have good mechanisms and policies, open direct flights, and open visa policies. Kazakhstan will increase imports of Vietnam's strong products such as garments and footwear.

The two leaders highly appreciated the potential for cooperation in the fields of energy - mining, transportation - logistics, finance, tourism, education - training, human resource development, science - technology. These are all bright spots in the relationship between the two countries, and at the same time the focus of economic development.

The General Secretary said that the two sides have great potential to strengthen relations and have strengths to complement each other, increase connectivity, people-to-people exchange, and tourism cooperation as Vietnam has beautiful beaches and Kazakhstan has vast steppes.

Vietnam is ready to be a bridge for Kazakhstan to strengthen cooperation with countries in Southeast Asia and Kazakhstan will be a bridge for Vietnam to strengthen cooperation with Central Asian countries.

General Secretary To Lam receives Dostyk Friendship Medal, first class

After the talks, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev respectfully presented the Dostyk Order of Friendship, first class, to General Secretary To Lam.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev awarded the First Class Friendship Medal to General Secretary To Lam. Photo: VNA

General Secretary To Lam shared that this award is a recognition and appreciation of the achievements of many decades of cooperation and solidarity between Vietnam and Kazakhstan, a vivid symbol of the sincere feelings and trust between the people of the two countries.

Over the past decades, the Vietnam - Kazakhstan friendship has been built on the basis of mutual respect and understanding and has been continuously nurtured by generations of leaders and people of the two countries, with the common belief and aspiration for freedom and independence, and for a bright future.

The Dostyk Order of Friendship, First Class, is a great source of encouragement for all of us to follow in the footsteps of previous generations, constantly striving to build the best for the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Kazakhstan in the future.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/viet-nam-va-kazakhstan-nang-cap-quan-he-len-doi-tac-chien-luoc-2398380.html