Envoy: Vietnam, Azerbaijan keen on boosting interaction

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and Vietnam have intensified the bilateral relations over the past years, and great successes have been achieved, said Anar Imanov, Baku’s Ambassador to Hanoi.

Imanov, talking to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan celebrated on May 28 and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides, said that the first two decades of diplomatic relations were smooth, but not active.

Over the past four years, the Azerbaijani embassy has worked hard to intensify bilateral cooperation between the two countries, according to the ambassador.

“In 2014, President Ilham Aliyev paid a state visit to Vietnam and a year later, in 2015, Vietnam's President Trin San-Sang arrived in Azerbaijan on an official visit. Both visits played a decisive role in boosting the bilateral cooperation between our countries,” he said, adding that during this time there were other numerous visits at various levels, including visits by members of both governments, parliaments, and officials of the ruling parties.

Imanov went on to say that the parliaments of the two states established friendship groups, as well as an intergovernmental commission for trade, economic and scientific and technical cooperation.

“All this was done in the past four years, and we could not achieve this without strong political will on both sides and a very sincere and clear approach to our friendship. Both sides are interested in developing relations between our countries as actively as possible," said Imanov.   

Azerbaijan could become a gateway to Vietnam in order to approach a large potential market in Europe, on the other hand, Vietnam could become a gateway to Azerbaijan's exit to the Southeast Asian market, the ambassador said, adding that Baku is implementing a number of energy projects such as the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum for the delivery of oil and gas to Europe and the TANAP pipeline is under construction.

“Another important project is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will connect Asia with Europe. Vietnam can also enjoy the railway, sending its goods to Europe. This can be one of the most accessible and fastest ways of delivering goods by rail through Asia to Europe and vice versa,” he said.

Imanov noted that Azerbaijan and Vietnam are ready to continue and develop cooperation in the field of education and training.

“Many of those [Vietnamese citizens] who have graduated in Azerbaijan have achieved very great successes in their careers. This fact shows that education in Azerbaijan is really good, and it should attract more students,” he said, voicing hope that the tradition of cooperation between our countries in the field of education will strengthen.