Hanoi (VNA) – President Tran Dai Quang has said his upcoming visitto Egypt once again confirms Vietnam'sdesire to continue boosting the momentum for bilateral relations between the two countries to grow with a greater effectiveness and substance.

The President made the statement in an interview granted to Egyptian media onthe occasion of his State visit to Egypt from August 25-29 at theinvitation of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

The following is the full text of the interview.

Your Excellency Mr. President! Could you share with usthe purpose and significance of your present visit to Egypt?

PresidentTran Dai Quang: At the invitation of President Abdel FattahAl-Sisi, it is my great pleasure to lead a high-level delegation to pay a State visit toEgypt at a time when our two countries are holding a range of significant events tocelebrate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the official diplomatic relations. This is my first visit as the Presidentof the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the first visit by ahigh-level Vietnamese leader to Egypt since the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic ties in 1963.

After more than half acentury,  friendship between Vietnam andEgypt friendship,  nurtured by generations of our leaders and peoples, has become our shared pride and treasure. Never will the Vietnamese people forgetthe kind assistance that the Egyptian people have given us when we fought for the national independence in the past as well as inthe course of national construction and development today. We follow with keeninterest the great accomplishments that you have recentlyachieved and would like to offer our sincere congratulations to the Egyptian State and people. With that, Egypt has now become one of the top threeeconomies in Africa, enjoying ever greater role and influence in the region andthe world. 

I am very pleased that following the visit by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi toVietnam in September 2017, the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam andEgypt has flourished in all areas. My visit toEgypt once again confirms Vietnam's desire to continue boosting the momentum for our  bilateral relations to grow with a greater effectiveness and substance.

In this visit, I will hodl talk with HisExcellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, meet with His Excellency PrimeMinister Mostafa Madbouly, His Excellency the Speaker of the House of RepresentativesAbdel Ali Aal, and other Egyptian leaders at thelocal level  to discuss with them the directions and measures topromote cooperation and friendship between the two countries in politics,defense, security, trade, investment, agriculture, education and training,culture and tourism, cooperation between localities, people-to-people exchanges, as well as our coordination at international forums.

Mr.President, could you please share your view on the relationship between the twocountries in recent years and the prospects of Vietnam – Egypt cooperation inthe future?

President Tran Dai Quang: Looking back at the history, Egypt was among the first Arab countriesto establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam at the critical moment in our people's struggle for national liberation andreunification.  More significantly, Egypt was the country President Ho Chi Minh had set foot three times in his revolutionary life.

Over the last 55 years, thefriendship between Vietnam and Egypt has taken great strides in various fields.

Politically, the two sidesare maintaining exchanges of delegations at various levels through the Party,government, parliamentary and people-to-people channels, and are coordinatingclosely at multilateral forums, in particular the United Nations, the South-South cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement,and within Francophonie. The 5th Meetings of the twocountries' Intergovernmental Committee was held in Hanoi in August 2017, thus promoting cooperation in effective and substantial ways.

Egypt is presently Vietnam's fifth largest trade partner in Africa. Bilateraltrade turnover has been steadily increasing year by year; with the first half of 2018 alone registered a 44 percent year-on-yearincrease.

Cultural and educational cooperation as well as people-to-people ties have alsoseen great strides. Egypt is assisting to train Arabic language for Vietnamese students. The two sides have also signed an MoU ontourism cooperation, Programs on Cultural and Tourism cooperation, thus creatinga solid framework for tourism promotion and cultural exchange activities ineach country.

In the time to come, with a market of 100 million people in eachcountry, we will enjoy manygreat opportunities and potential for cooperation, including the promotion of exports of each country's key products into the other's market, and the mutual assistance in market expansion. Vietnam stands ready to assist Egypt to access theASEAN market, while hoping Epypt be a gateway for Vietnam’s entry to the Middle East and African markets. During thevisit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Vietnam last year, we hadreached an agreement that the key area for cooperation in the future would bethe promotion of economic – trade – investment cooperation, to live up tothe  excellent friendship and thepotentials of our two countries.

Given the establishment of the Vietnam – Egypt Subcommittee on Trade andIndustry and the success of its first Session in April 2018, I have everyreason to believe that the target for bilateral trade turnover of 1 billion USDset by the two countries' top leaders shall soon be realised.

In my talks with the high-level leaders of Egypt, I will discuss measures for the two sides to continue cooperating, tapping intothe enormous potential and assisting each other for joint development. A widerange of agreements are being actively prepared by our respective ministriesand agencies to be signed during my visit, so as to bolster thelegal framework for economic cooperation between our two countries.

There are immense prospects and potentials for cooperation across all areasbetween Vietnam and Egypt. Given the determination of high-level leaders andthe support and enthusiasm from every ministry, sector, locality, business andcitizen of the two countries, there is every cause for the friendship andcooperation between Vietnam and Egypt to flourish and grow extensively and intensively, serving ourmutual interests, as well as peace, stability and development inthe region and the world.-VNA