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The Hanoitimes – Vietnam and Russia have stepped up its oil and gas cooperation in a latest move amid China’s growing expansionism in the South China Sea.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said the Vietnamese government always attaches great the importance to oil and gas cooperation with Russia companies.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and General Director of Zarubezhneft JSC Sergey Ivanovich Kudryashov in Hanoi on December 13. Photo: VGP

He said he will ask the Ministry of Industry and Trade to consider some preferential mechanisms for Russian companies, mostly oil and gas ones, to facilitate their operations in Vietnam, Phuc said at a meeting with General Director of Zarubezhneft JSC Sergey Ivanovich Kudryashov.

The PM affirmed that the government of Vietnam will create optimal conditions for projects run by Zarubezhneft and Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).

Zarubezhneft and PetroVietnam are running two petroleum joint ventures which are Vietsovpetro in Vietnam and Rusvietpetro in Russia.

At the meeting, Sergey Ivanovich Kudryashov informed the PM about good performance of the two joint ventures.

Established in 1981, JV Vietsovpetro obtained its first oil flow in 1986. The discovery of a highly productive oil deposit in the granites of the crystalline basement of the Bach Ho field was a major success of the Russian petroleum experts.

Meanwhile, Rusvietpetro was established in 2008 in accordance with the Joint Declaration signed by the Presidents of Russia and Vietnam in 2006. The company handles the development of 4 blocks of the Central Khoreyver Uplift in the Nenets Autonomous District which includes 13 fields.

In 2019, the participants signed a number of documents showing joint efforts in new projects both in Vietnam and Russia. This year, Zarubezhneft also entered the consortium with Novatek, Total, and Siemens for the implementation of an LNG project in Vietnam.

For years, energy is one of key pillars in the Vietnam – Russia ties and once again affirmed by top government leaders Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia.

In Phuc’s visit to Russia in May 2019, they affirmed energy remains one of the key pillars in the bilateral relations, saying that the two sides would support both Vietnamese and Russian firms in the exploration and operations of oil and gas in Vietnam’s continental shelf and in Russia’s.

Companies at the center of attention include Gazprom, Novatek, Rosneft, among others.

The Hanoitimes – The two sides consider inter-parliamentary cooperation an important component of the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The first Vietnam-Russia inter-parliament meeting has opened up new areas of cooperation that are poised to foster the comprehensive strategic partnership.

Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin. Photo: VNA

Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin co-chaired the meeting in Moscow last week.

“It would be right for us to work more intensively in the economic sphere, developing both foreign economic relations and goods circulation. It is clearly insufficient for the level of our relations. […] For our part, we must do everything to develop cooperation more effectively than today,” the State Duma quoted Viacheslav Volodin.

“When we talk about the work of our inter-parliament commission, it should do everything to ensure more dynamical development of foreign economic relations,” he said at the meeting.

Viacheslav Volodin supported the idea of creating working groups and said that the adoption of legislative decisions would entail a more active development of relations.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said “We will do our best to develop cooperation between our countries, trade and economic relations better. To ensure that these results correspond to good political relations between our countries.”

Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin at the first inter-parliament meeting in Moscow. Photo: Duma.org.ru

Economic in focus, oil and gas remain among key pillars

Both sides agreed to focus on economic ties.

Ngan said that it is necessary to discuss issues of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, agriculture, and tourism. She proposed having separate working groups for each field.

Vietnam expected to continue cooperation with Russia in power projects, especially one in the Center for Nuclear Science and Technology.

Viacheslav Volodin said the two countries need to do everything to develop more actively foreign economic relations and goods circulation so that Russian companies can more actively participate in the development of these relations, implementing investment projects.

He noted “It is extremely important to create all conditions for business development and implementation of investment projects both in Russia and Vietnam on the principles of developing bilateral cooperation.”

“If we reach US$10 billion (turnover), this will give an additional impetus to our countries. This will develop the economies of our countries and increase their prosperity,” said the chairman of the State Duma.

The leaders stressed the importance of more than 70 years of diplomatic relations and 25 years since the signing of the treaty on the principles of friendly relations between Vietnam and Russia, and the two parties.

They affirmed the parliament’s significant role in strengthening the legal basis for the bilateral relations and close coordination between the two sides at international parliamentary organizations, such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, meetings with dialogue partners at the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments, and the International Forum “Development of Parliamentarism”.

The Hanoitimes – The two countries have determined to expand their bilateral ties in the new historical conditions.

The Strategic Partnership between the Russia and Vietnam is a natural result of decades-long fruitful collaboration between the two countries, according to a Russian diplomat.

The Vietnam-Russia relations upgraded to strategic partnership 20 years ago. Photo: Vietnam Briefing

Maria Zakharova made the statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the bilateral strategic partnership, saying that the relations over the past 20 years has achieved impressive results.

The declaration of the diplomatic relationship, which was signed in Hanoi on March 1, 2001, materialized the Russian and Vietnamese peoples’ wish to progressively strengthen their intergovernmental relations based on many years of friendship and mutually advantageous cooperation,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

She named the milestone is “historic” and marks the cooperation in a variety of fields and showed the two countries’ determination to expand bilateral ties in the new historical conditions on the basis of their rich experience of interaction accumulated over the previous period of time.

Political dialog at the top and high levels has become regular. The cooperation in the trade, economic, military, military-technical, scientific, technological and humanitarian spheres has got an additional impetus.

Meanwhile, inter-parliamentary and interparty exchanges as well as inter-regional contacts have become more active.

“We have developed new cooperation mechanisms which enable more efficient interaction so as to find ways of solving pressing issues concerning bilateral affairs and close coordination on the international arena. It is indicative that our strategic partnership became comprehensive by mutual consent in 2012,” the spokeswoman stressed.

She highlighted the solidarity and unchanging mutual support, typical in the two countries’ joint efforts in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.

Russia and Vietnam have been offering each other the necessary consultative and methodological assistance while their specialized institutions are engaged in a dialogue on a whole range of matters in fighting against Covid-19 pandemic, constantly exchanging experience in combating this dangerous disease, Maria Zakharova said.

Today, notwithstanding a complex situation in the region and the world, increased turbulence and radical changes in the entire system of international relations, the all-round strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam based on many years of experience of fruitful cooperation remains an important part of Russian foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, she noted.