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VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga (R) presents the medal “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” to Azerbaijani Ambassador to Vietnam Anar Imanov. Photo: VUFO

Speaking at the ceremony, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga said the medal aims to honour the remarkable contributions of Imanov, the first ambassador of Azerbaijan in Vietnam, over the past seven years, to strengthening and accelerating the friendship and cooperation between the two peoples since the Azerbaijani Embassy was officially established in Hanoi in 2013.

He also enthusiastically supported the founding of the Vietnam – Azerbaijan Friendship Association in October 2015, she noted. Since then, the association has cooperated with the Azerbaijani Embassy to organise various diplomatic and cultural events and delegation exchanges, especially the visit of President Ilham Aliyev to Vietnam in 2014.

Nga hoped that the ambassador will continue dedicating to the development of the bilateral relations in the future.

For his part, Ambassador Anar Imanov expressed his pleasure to receive the noble award of the VUFO.

“28 years ago diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Socialist Republic of Vietnam have been established. Today it makes me proud to call our relations historical as the collaboration and friendship between our nations started long before restoration of Azerbaijan’s independence. The visit of the first President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh to Azerbaijan in 1959, and the visit of the National leader and founder of the modern Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev to Vietnam in 1983 laid the foundation of friendly relations between our two people," he stressed.

“Thousands of Azerbaijani specialists were sent to Vietnam where they participated in the reconstruction and development of post-war Vietnam. Many Vietnamese students were admitted to different universities, institutes andvocational schools in Azerbaijan.Those days symbolized beginning of real warm, sincerelyand friednly relations between two nations,” Ambassador Anar Imanov noted.

He recalled the meeting with VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga, the then Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. “Our meeting was held in April 2013, in Baku, on the sidelines of the Forum of Alumni of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Nga was the first Vietnamese official I met. This meeting was extremely fruitful and in many respects predetermined my future activity in Vietnam.”

According to the diplomat, the cooperation with the VUFO has begun since the establishment of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Hanoi in 2013. During this time, a number of important events were organized jointly by the Embassy and VUFO. Thus, the meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Vietnamese alumni of Azerbaijani educational institutions was held within the framework of his state visit to Vietnam in May, 2014. This successful meeting made a great impression on the President of Azerbaijan.

As a result of this, by the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev, the first meeting of the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Friendship Forum was held in 2015, at ADA University in Baku. After that, as a continuation of this initiative in 2017, the second meeting of the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Friendship Forum was held in Vung Tau.

He said the VUFO and Vietnam – Azerbaijan Friendship Association always create favourable conditions for the embassy to fulfill its mission, affirming his belief that the cooperation between VUFO and Azerbaijan will continue to be successful.

The diplomat also hailed Nghiem Vu Khai, Chairman of the Vietnam-Azerbaijan Friendship Association. For recent years, Embassy and Association have jointly organized a lot of successful events. Thus, for his valuable contribution to the development of friendly and cooperation relations between Azerbaijan and Vietnam, in accordance with the Order of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in September 2017, Khai has been awarded the Progress Medal./.