Nguyen Tien Phong, Ambassador of Viet Nam to Pakistan
77 years ago, on 2 September 1945, President Ho Chi Minh, who has been honored by UNESCO as National Liberation Hero and World’s Cultural Celebrity, read the Declaration of Independence officially giving birth to Viet Nam Democratic Republic, now the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
Over the past 77 years, under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party, with the spirit of “nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”, Viet Nam in the Ho Chi Minh ERA overcame many difficulties and challenges to maintain its independence and unification and achieved many proud construction and development achievements.
From the strong reforming spirit of “Doi Moi” 1986, with persistent efforts, Viet Nam from a country ravaged by wars, underdeveloped, with limited foreign relations has now risen to become a developing economy, and people’s living standards are improved; Social and political stability; national defense and security are guaranteed; foreign policy and international integration are deepening.
With an average annual GDP growth of about 7% over the past 36 years, today, Viet Nam ranks among the Top 40 economies with the largest GDP in the world, and the Top 16 most successful emerging economies. Viet Nam is a convergence of tens of thousands of investors from 140 countries and territories with a total investment of nearly 430 billion USD.
In 2021, the total trade turnover reached a record level, about 670 billion USD, an increase of nearly 23%. Viet Nam has joined 15 FTAs, including new generation FTAs, such as CPTPP, EVFTA, RCEP, etc. with high standards and open market incentives, helping Viet Nam to easily access the markets of 60 countries and territories.
From the beginning of 2022 until now, Viet Nam has well controlled the epidemic, stabilized socio-political conditions, the economy is recovering quickly, GDP in the first 6 months of 2022 increased by 6.42%, inflation was controlled at around 2,44 % compared to the same period 2021, major balances in food and energy… People’s living standards have been improved, social security has been actively implemented.
Viet Nam belongs to the group of countries with a high level of HDI on human development. Viet Nam has completed ahead of time many of the MDG-2015 Millennium Development Goals and is making efforts to implement the United Nations SDG-2030 Sustainable Development Goals; implementing COP26 commitments on reducing emissions.
Viet Nam has increasingly opened foreign relations, has established diplomatic relations with 190 countries; has close relations with neighboring countries; established long-term stable relationships with 30 strategic and comprehensive partners. We have successfully completed the tasks of APEC Year 2017, North Korea-US Summit Host Country 2019, ASEAN Chair 2020, Non-Permanent Member, and United Nations Security Council 2020-2021.
Recently, with high trust, Viet Nam joined the Executive Council of UNESCO 2021-2025 and was re-elected to the International Law Commission. Soldiers of the Viet Nam People’s Army and Viet Nam People’s Public Security have participated in peacekeeping operations with many positive results, which are highly appreciated by the international community.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, Viet Nam continues to deepen its relationship with many partners, conduct sincere diplomacy “from the heart to heart”, contribute to strategic confidence building, and stick to a peaceful and independent foreign policy, being reliable, responsible, the proactive partner always.
The international situation has many new opportunities intertwined with rapid and unpredictable fluctuations, fierce geo-political competition in the region and in the world; Non-traditional security challenges in energy and food, disruption of supply chains, and slowing globalization. In that context, the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Viet Nam 2021 has determined its goals and strives: by 2025, Viet Nam will be a developing country with modern industry, surpassing the low-middle income level; by 2030, it to be a developing country with modern industry and high middle income; and by 2045, become a developed, high-income country.
Viet Nam consistently implements the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation, and development; diversifies and multilateralism foreign relations; respects the basic principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, equality, cooperation for mutual benefits; carries out the active comprehensive international integration with the platform of Viet Nam is a friend, a reliable partner and an active and responsible member of the international community.
On each of the past journeys, in obtaining important achievements, we always receive the support of friends and the international community. On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere affection and deep gratitude for the valuable support, assistance, and effective cooperation of countries, organizations, international partners, businesses, and international investors, and the sincere contribution of friends and people from the world to Viet Nam.
Viet Nam and Pakistan have enjoyed excellent friendship and cooperation in many fields. This year 2022, Viet Nam and Pakistan are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations. On November 8th, 1972, Viet Nam and Pakistan officially established diplomatic relations, opening a new page in friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
Being here today we have Ambassador Tariq Osman Hyder, the first Pakistani Diplomat going to Viet Nam alone to open and set up the mission in 1971 with many difficulties he faced and shared with the Vietnamese people in our challenging time, we have
Ambassadors to Viet Nam Ambassador Salahuddin Choudhry, Ambassador Shahid Kiani, and Ambassador Zaigham Uddin Azam who greatly contributed to the relations between the two countries in recent decades, and I would like to have your big hands to them, please.
Over the past 50 years, the Viet Nam-Pakistan relationship has witnessed encouraging developments in many fields, including political, trade and investment, technology, culture, and people and people exchange…
Regarding political relations, the two countries exchanged many VVIP, high-level delegations, notably the fresh meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries when attending the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Cambodia on the 4th of August this year… Viet Nam and Pakistan also actively support each other in international forums and United Nations bodies.
The agreements and common perceptions between our senior leaders have created an important premise for the multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.
Currently, Viet Nam and Pakistan are preparing to organize the third Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) and the fifth Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) and Joint Trade Commission (JTC).
In terms of economics and trade, notably, the trade volume between Pakistan and Viet Nam has increased from 54 million USD in 2005 to more than 700 million USD in 2017 and reached more than US$ 794 million in 2021, an increase of 54.41% compared to 2020.
However, it is still very low as compared to the huge potentials of both sides with nearly 330 million people/consumers and many other complementary advantages, such as agriculture products, pharmacy, manufacturing industries, garments and textiles, seafood, Halal foods… and many others.
Viet Nam and Pakistan have signed a remarkable number of MoUs and Agreements in many fields and they are very significant foundations for further enhancement of the relationship. And it is the time for us to implement, to bring into play and realize substantively all the huge potentials for the sake of our peoples and countries.
I always remind myself that I am here with the assignments from our State, Party, Government, and Vietnamese people to boost up the relations comprehensively and in all fields, to those goals, we need to elevate people to people contact, strengthen mutual understandings between our peoples, it is the key for the development of our bilateral cooperation relations.
And it is very feasible, I am sure, why? The reason is that, despite difficulties, and obstacles, Ambassador Osman Hyder came to Ha Noi Viet Nam as the first Pakistani diplomat at the beginning of our diplomatic relations journey together, and now why not any citizen of our two countries be a diplomat in his/her fields, and why not any of our diplomat of Viet Nam Embassy here in Islamabad and your diplomat in Hanoi be a facilitator, an implementer for the cause of bridging our peoples closer, of creating more and more value-added in our traditional and friendly relations, it is absolutely possible.
We are living in an era of globalization, full of rapid and unpredictable changes. Most extraordinarily, the emergence and outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional and non-traditional security challenges, such as conflicts in many areas, climate change…
