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Azerbaijani FM: Vietnam will benefit from North-South transport corridor

13 September 2017 11:55 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Wednesday met with his Vietnamese counterpart Fam Binh Minh as part of his official visit to this country, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told APA.

Rauf Aliyev, a member of the Parliament and New Azerbaijan Party, also attended the meeting.

The ministers exchanged congratulatory letters addressed by heads of state on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam.

Minister Mammadyarov said that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam have deep historical bonds and in this regard, recalled the visit of former Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan in 1959, and the visit of the Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev to Vietnam in 1983, as the First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers.

At the same time, Mammadyarov stressed the importance of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Vietnam in 2014 and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to Azerbaijan in 2015 in terms of deepening and promoting bilateral relations. He added that those mutual visits gave an impetus to the promotion of cooperation and the intensification of political dialogue between our countries.

Minister Mammadyarov noted that there are vast opportunities for expanding economic and trade relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam, and said that it is useful to conduct mutual business forums to identify such opportunities and explore new areas of cooperation. Also, Mammadyarov noted the role of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation between the two countries, established in 2015, and informed his counterpart about the meeting with the commission co-chair, Tran Tuan Anh.

Minister Mammadyarov briefed his counterpart on the potential of the North-South transport corridor, noting that Vietnam, which is interested in increasing export to Europe, will benefit from this project, and consequently shorten the transport route from Viet Nam to Europe.

Meanwhile, Mammadyarov shared brief information about the negotiating process on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the mediation of the Minsk Group co-chairs, saying that the relevant UN Security Council resolutions have yet not been implemented by Armenia. Furthermore, he added that the presence of military forces of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan remains the main obstacle in the settlement of the conflict.

Minister Fam Binh Minh said that official visits played an important role in forging high-level cooperation between the two countries. He emphasized the importance of continuation of a successful political dialogue in the economic sphere, and noted the potential for trade turnover increase. He also proposed to intensify cooperation in the field of energy by benefiting Azerbaijan's successful energy policy and experience.

The Vietnamese minister said that the cooperation in transport and logistics could be a new page in the development of relations between the two countries.

Minister Fam Binh Minh noted that the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in agriculture and rural development between the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Agriculture of Vietnam, which was signed in 2015, has created a favorable ground for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of agriculture and has opened numerous opportunities.

Minister Fam Binh Minh touched upon the expansion of cooperation in the field of education and gladly reminded that experts working in the oil field of Vietnam got their high education in Azerbaijan. He also added that Azerbaijani oilmen played a special role in the creation of Vietnam's Veso Petrol Company.

During the meeting, the ministers also discussed cooperation between the two countries within the framework of international organizations and the expansion of the legal-treaty framework.

After the meeting, the ministers held a joint press conference.