Mexico City (VNA) – Mexico’s magazine VocesDel Periodista (Voice of Mexican journalists) has run a story spotlighting thetraditional ties between Vietnam and Latin America in general and Brazil in particular, on the occasion of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visitto Brazil from September 23-26.

The article, entitled "Vietnam opens its arms of friendshipto Latin American countries", highlighted the image of a Vietnamese nation withincreasing integration in all fields with friends all over the world, becomingan important factor in the Indo-Pacific region.

Vietnam’s glorious history of national defence has inspiredmillions of peace-loving people around the world, it said, underlining that thecountry has risen from the ashes of war into a strong country playing aprominent role in the region and the world, it noted, adding that it hasbecome the fourth largest economy in ASEAN and the 40th in theworld, entering the global top 20 economies in terms of international tradescale in 2022.

Last year, US magazine US News & World Report listedVietnam among the world's top 30 powerful countries basing on five factorsof leadership capacity, economic influence, political influence, strong internationalalliance and strong military, the article noted.

Regarding the Vietnam-Latin America relations, the articleclarified that this is an extremely close and long-term relationship, whilereviewing major milestones of the ties. It noted that so far, Vietnam has set updiplomatic relations with all 33 Latin American countries.

In terms of economic-trade partnership, the article said that two-way trade hasincreased strongly from 14.2 billion USD in 2018 to 23 billion USD in 2022.

In investment, Vietnam has invested in a number of important projects in theLatin American region with hundreds of millions of USD, includingtelecommunications projects by Viettel in Peru and Haiti, as well as those by ViglaceraCorporation and Thai Binh company in Cuba. Meanwhile, investors from 21 LatinAmerican countries are running 114 projects in Vietnam with a combined capitalof about 671 million USD.

Vietnam and Latin American partners are effectivelyimplementing trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, and Peru are members, as well as the Vietnam-Chile FTA and Vietnam-Cuba FTA.

The article underlined that the Vietnamese PM’s visit toBrazil will open up new cooperation opportunities for the two countries in manyfields, especially on the threshold of the 35th anniversary of thebilateral diplomatic relations in 2024.

After elevating their ties to a comprehensive partnership in2007, Vietnam and Brazil have enjoyed a deep and substantial partnership. Thetwo sides have signed and implemented 16 cooperation agreements, protocols and deals in the fields of science-technology, maritime transport, civil aviation,agriculture, health care, trade, tourism, State and people-to-people diplomacyas well as locality-to-locality collaboration.

They have also maintained the Joint Committee mechanismbetween the two governments and political consultations between the two ForeignMinistries. Vietnam supported Brazil to run for a seat at the UN SecurityCouncil, while Brazil also assisted Vietnam to become a non-permanent member ofthe council in the 2020-2021 tenure.

At the same time, Brazil is one of the largest trade partnerof Vietnam in Latin America, while Vietnam is the biggest trade partner ofBrazil in Southeast Asia and the fifth in Asia.

According to Voces Del Periodista, there is plenty of roomfor Vietnam and Brazil to promote their trade relations as their structure ofgoods is complementary to each other, especially in the context of Vietnam andother members of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) are conducting researchon the possibility of negotiating a MERCOSUR - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement./.