OREANDA-NEWS. July 27, 2009. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, paid an official visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) from July 24-25.

The head of the Russian MFA met with SRV President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and held thorough talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem.

During the meetings and talks, the sides expressed satisfaction with the dynamic evolution of Russian-Vietnamese relations at this stage, reaffirmed the mutual mindset to consistently strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, and outlined a schedule of long-term foreign policy contacts.

Special attention was paid to questions of realizing the bilateral accords on comprehensively pushing forward our partner cooperation, reached by President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet in Moscow in October 2008, and to measures aimed at reinvigorating collaboration in the trade, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, educational and humanitarian fields and at increasing the effectiveness of the coordination of actions by Russia and the SRV on the world stage, particularly on Asia-Pacific multilateral cooperation issues.

A Memorandum of Intentions between Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation and Vietnam’s Science and Technology Ministry on Cooperation under the SRV National Atomic Energy Development Program was signed during the visit.

Russian Federation Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov was presented with a Vietnamese state award – the Friendship Order – in recognition of his outstanding contribution to promoting the Russian-Vietnamese Strategic Partnership.

While staying in Hanoi, Lavrov visited the Vietnam-Russia Bank, and met Vietnamese-Russian Friendship Society activists.