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What is the purpose and significance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife's official visit to the UAE, Qatar, and their attendance at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Saudi Arabia?

From October 27 to November 1, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, pay official visits to the United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar, and attend the 8th Future Investment Initiative Conference in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Hang. Photo: WVR

This is the first official visit by a Vietnamese Prime Minister to the UAE and Qatar in 15 years, the first visit by a Vietnamese government leader to Saudi Arabia since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the first time a Vietnamese Prime Minister has been a keynote speaker and the only Asian leader at the 8th Future Investment Initiative Conference hosted by Saudi Arabia.

With these milestones, the visit is of utmost importance in strengthening political trust, elevating bilateral relations, and creating breakthroughs in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, as well as in new areas. Thereby, it drives a new phase of cooperation between Vietnam and the three countries, as well as with the Gulf region.

As we all know, the Gulf region is one of the world's leading dynamic development regions, with the world's largest oil reserves, leading financial centers, and is at the forefront of new development models towards economic diversification, embracing new trends in green transformation, digital transformation and innovation. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are among the countries with the largest economies and most important roles in the Middle East.

The UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region are partners, markets, investors, financial centres, and technology centres with great potential and room for cooperation with Vietnam. Accordingly, the Prime Minister's visit is expected to create new momentum for traditional areas of cooperation, create new breakthroughs to promote potential areas, and above all, firmly establish political trust to pave the way for a new phase of cooperation between Vietnam and the three countries as well as the entire region.

The Prime Minister's visit to the three countries of UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and attendance at the Future Investment Initiative Conference is a practical and vivid implementation of the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, the policy of multilateralization, diversification, active international integration, in which priority is given to diversifying markets, partners, supply chains, contributing to further consolidating the peaceful and cooperative environment, maximizing the attraction of resources for national development.

How do you assess Vietnam's relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar now and in the future?

In our foreign policy, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are crucial, long-term, and comprehensive partners in various fields within the Middle East region. These three countries also recognize Vietnam as a top partner in Southeast Asia and prioritize their relationship with Vietnam in their 'Looking East' policy. Over the past period, Vietnam's relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have been developing positively with many tangible results, and there has been increasingly close cooperation and mutual support in multilateral forums.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife. Photo: VGP

The UAE is Vietnam's largest export market in the Middle East and Africa region, with bilateral trade reaching US$4.7 billion in 2023. In the first seven months of 2024, Vietnam exported US$3.37 billion to the UAE, a 51% increase compared to the same period in 2023. The two countries have initiated negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in June 2023 and are aiming to finalize the CEPA during the Prime Minister's visit.

As of June 2024, the UAE has 41 direct investment projects (FDI) in Vietnam with a total registered capital of US$71.6 million. Vietnam currently has about 3,000 workers in the UAE. The two countries share a common understanding of the importance of elevating their bilateral relations to a new height, commensurate with the potential, economic scale, and expectations of both sides.

Saudi Arabia is Vietnam's third largest trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa region with bilateral trade reaching US$2.68 billion in 2023. Large economic groups of Saudi Arabia are becoming increasingly interested in Vietnam. Vietnam currently has about 4,000 workers in Saudi Arabia.

With its strong potential in energy and finance, Qatar is a large potential economic and investment partner for Vietnam. Bilateral trade reached US$497.2 million in 2023 (a 32% increase compared to 2022). The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has been studying and promoting investment projects, especially in real estate and industry, in Vietnam. Other areas of cooperation such as education and labor have also seen significant progress.

During this visit, the Prime Minister will hold talks, meetings, and exchanges with the highest-ranking leaders, investment funds, and major corporations of the three countries to promote comprehensive and effective bilateral relations,particularly in market access, attracting high-quality investment, labor cooperation, education, culture, sports, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, climate change mitigation, and cooperation in new areas such as science and technology, clean energy, digital transformation, innovation, and halal industry development.

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