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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, friends, good afternoon,

I am very pleased to meet you in person and to discuss the state of Russian-Vietnamese relations. I would like to highlight from the very beginning of our conversation that we are satisfied with the way our interstate ties are developing, based on the traditions of friendship, mutual support and assistance.

In the economy, we rely on the development of ties in high technology, power engineering, defence cooperation, culture, education and science.

Despite all the well-known problems in the global economy, trade between Russia and Vietnam grew 5 percent in the first nine months of this year. Moreover, a very important event took place: Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union reached an understanding and signed a free trade agreement. Vietnam became the first country to receive preferential access to the market of Russia and our partner countries.

I am very glad to discuss the entire range of these issues with you and our friends. Thank you.

President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Dai Quang (retranslated): Thank you very much, Mr President.

I am very glad to meet with you today on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and I am pleased to meet with our other Russian friends, who have worked shoulder to shoulder with Vietnam over the past years.

I would like to thank you once again for your congratulations and kindness to me when I was elected President of Vietnam and also on my birthday.

I am very glad to cooperate with you personally and with our other Russian friends to boost our ties. I would like to highlight our traditionally friendly relations.

Recently our relations have experienced positive shifts in such spheres as the economy, trade, investment, defence cooperation, science, technology, education and so forth. The political trust between our countries is getting stronger, and traditional spheres of cooperation are developing as well.

I fully share Mr President’s view that the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union became a major milestone in the development of our economic ties.

I would like to use this opportunity to express my gratitude personally to the President of Russia and our Russian friends for the help you rendered to us in the war years, when we were fighting for national liberation, and in the current period, as we are building our country.

I agree with those main guidelines you set for developing our ties in the nearest future, especially amidst globalisation and the technological revolution.

Thank you for Russia’s support at international forums and especially as part of APEC.

Vietnam will host the next APEC Leaders’ Meeting and I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in it and pay an official visit to Vietnam.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. We would also gladly welcome you to Moscow at any time convenient to you. I will certainly pay a visit and participate in the APEC meeting.

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