Baku, October 24, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh.

Welcoming the delegation, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- I am glad to welcome you to Azerbaijan. Welcome to our country!

I am very pleased that the friendly country of Vietnam is participating in the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement at a high level. This testifies to the fact that your country attaches great importance to participation in this important international organization. As you know, the decision for Azerbaijan to assume chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement was made unanimously by all members. This is evidence of great respect and trust in our country on the part of member countries. Over the next three years, we as the chairing country will do everything to ensure that the Non-Aligned Movement continues to actively participate in all international affairs. We also plan to further intensify our bilateral relations with member countries, including yours. I am glad that our relations are developing very dynamically and successfully and are based on mutual respect.

I am pleased to recall my official visit to your country. I was impressed by the rapid development of your country, the solution of the most important social issues and the very dynamic growth of the economy. I also had a separate meeting with graduates of Azerbaijani universities, who hold important government and public posts in Vietnam. During that meeting, I invited our friends who studied in Baku to visit Azerbaijan. They accepted my invitation and had a very good time here. After that, a year later, in 2015, the President of Vietnam made an official visit to Azerbaijan. In other words, it means that the dynamics of relations have been determined and your visit today once again confirms the friendly nature of our relations. I am confident that in the future our friendly ties will develop successfully, encompassing political, economic, humanitarian and other spheres. You are welcome again!

Х Х Х

Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh said:

- Dear Mr. President!

First of all, I am very glad to meet with you. Thank you very much for taking the time to receive our delegation. I would like to express our gratitude for the cordial and warm welcome extended to our delegation during the Summit in Azerbaijan.

This is my first visit to your beautiful and very modern country – Azerbaijan. I appreciate the organization of this Summit by Azerbaijan and would like to congratulate you on the tremendous successes achieved in the country's development.

As you already said, Vietnam also attaches great importance to the development and strengthening of the relations of friendship and cooperation with Azerbaijan. Taking this opportunity, I would like to convey the best regards and also the invitation from our Secretary General, President of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong to pay an official visit to Vietnam. The government and people of Vietnam never forget the enormous help the Azerbaijani people provided to the Vietnam in protecting and building the country. In particular, Azerbaijan has greatly assisted Vietnam in training personnel, namely, as you have already said, in the field of training of oil specialists.

This year marks a very important milestone in bilateral relations. We celebrate the 60th anniversary of the visit of our President Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan in July 1959. I think that this visit laid the foundation for the development of relations between our two countries. Baku, in particular, is an example for Vietnam in terms of the development of the modern oil industry. I completely agree with you that in the future we need to make efforts to develop our relations in all areas. I also suggest that the parties strengthen implementation of all agreements reached at the highest level, intensify cooperation between departments, ministries, parties, as well as the parliament. We must also cooperate closely within the framework of the intergovernmental commission on scientific, technical, trade and economic cooperation, so that our relations in the fields of economy and trade, investment, science and technology develop even further. The parties should maintain the possibility of regular meetings of this commission for the timely elimination of difficulties, as well as promote cooperation in accordance with the requirements of the new period.

As you have already noted, there is great development potential between our countries, therefore, we believe that the parties should attach great importance to the development of relations in such fields as petrochemistry, oil and gas industry, cooperation in the fields of trade, agriculture, tourism, and the humanitarian field. I also suggest that the parties resume effective cooperation in the field of personnel training, especially the training of oil specialists and engineers.

Taking this opportunity, we want to once again thank Azerbaijan for supporting Vietnam’s candidacy for non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for 2019-2021. I also suggest that the parties continue the tradition of mutual support in the international arena, including the UN, and within the Non-Aligned Movement.

In conclusion, a photo was taken.