Promoting Vietnam's relations with Uzbekistan and Armenia to new heights

Vietnamese Ambassador to the Russian Federation, concurrently serving as Armenia and Uzbekistan, Dang Minh Khoi, gives an interview to VNA. (Photo: VNA)

At the invitation of President of the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) Tulia Ackson and Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Martin Chungong, President of the Senate of the Uzbekistani Parliament Tanzila Narbaeva, President of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan, on behalf of the leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and his wife attended the 150th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-150) and paid official visits to the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Armenia from April 2-8.

During the visit, VNA reporters in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) interviewed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the Russian Federation, concurrently Uzbekistan and Armenia, Dang Minh Khoi.

Here is the interview content:

- Could you please tell us about the main milestones in the current relations between Vietnam and Armenia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan?

Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi: It can be said that the relationship between Vietnam and the Republic of Armenia is very special.

The two countries officially established diplomatic relations in 1992, more than 30 years ago. But looking back in history, these were two republics within the Soviet Union.

On January 30, 1950, we established official diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, including both of these countries. Thus, it can be said that the relationship between Vietnam and Armenia and Uzbekistan spans 75 years and in the early period, Armenia and Uzbekistan supported and helped us a lot, as well as other member countries of the Soviet Union.

After 30 years of establishing formal diplomatic relations, the Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, Tran Thanh Man, will pay an official visit to these two countries from April 2-8. This is the first visit, not only by our National Assembly Chairman but also by our senior leaders, to these two countries.

The purpose of the visit is to maintain and strengthen the previous traditional friendship and seek opportunities to promote cooperation to new heights.

Welcoming ceremony for National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and his wife at Zvartnots International Airport, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

One thing that needs to be noted is that both the leaders and people of Armenia and Uzbekistan have special feelings for Vietnam. The leaders of these two countries have visited Vietnam many times.

The President of Uzbekistan visited Vietnam in 2012, the Chairman of the Armenian Parliament visited Vietnam in 2024 and there were many visits at the ministerial and deputy ministerial levels, and especially the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has very special feelings for Vietnam.

When we contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, we were told that Mr. Mirziyoyev was once the Vice Rector of the University of Water Resources of Uzbekistan. And at that time there were many Vietnamese students studying there.

We have checked the information and during the Soviet period we had 3,000 students studying in Uzbekistan and 2,000 students studying in Armenia.

Up to now, these students still hold many important roles and positions in the Party and State apparatuses, as well as in Vietnamese enterprises.

- According to the Ambassador, what are the promising focuses in cooperation that Vietnam can build with these two Central Asian countries?

Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi: Uzbekistan has helped us a lot in developing the oil and gas industry. Therefore, we have high expectations for this visit of the National Assembly Chairman.

In our experience, high-level visits play a very important role in strengthening bilateral relations, including the role of parliaments and parliamentary diplomacy.

During the visit, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man plans to hold talks with the Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, the Chairman of the Senate, and the Chairman of the House of Representatives of Uzbekistan, and to greet the Presidents and Prime Ministers of these two countries.

In addition to exchanging and strengthening inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two countries, sharing experiences, building institutions and laws, and strengthening cooperation between friendship parliamentarian groups, we also focused on exchanging with the leaders of the two countries on major principles, as well as specific measures to further expand bilateral cooperation in all fields, especially politics, economics, trade, culture, education and training.

Let me give some examples of economic and trade cooperation. Both of these countries have great potential with Vietnam, but up to now, the trade turnover between the two countries is still very modest. Vietnam's trade with Armenia is about 500 million USD, with Uzbekistan is 200 million USD, and has not fully exploited all the potential.

Within the framework of this visit, the two governments will organize a Business Forum gathering many businesses, both state-owned and private, from the two countries to discuss specific cooperation.

An electronic components production line. (Photo: Nguyen Thao/VNA)

For example, with Armenia we exchange on the production of phones, electronic components, textiles, and agricultural and fishery products. With Uzbekistan, we also exchange on the fields of oil and gas exploitation, minerals, agriculture and textiles.

And especially with both of these countries, we discuss more about enhancing tourism cooperation. Both Armenia and Uzbekistan have beautiful landscapes, many interesting places that can attract and appeal to Vietnamese tourists.

For example, Armenia was the first country to recognize Christianity as an orthodox religion, and Uzbekistan has a very unique Central Asian and Islamic culture that I believe Vietnamese people are very interested in and want to learn about.

On the contrary, our Vietnam is an extremely beautiful country, with beautiful beaches and resorts, and tourists from both countries are eager to visit.

The biggest difficulty between Vietnam and Armenia and Uzbekistan is that we do not have direct flights.

With Uzbekistan, we have charter flights that started last year, which has helped tourism activities increase very quickly. Last year, 20,000 Uzbek tourists visited Vietnam. In contrast, 1,200 Vietnamese tourists visited Uzbekistan.

Aviation and tourism cooperation is also a point for the two sides to exchange.

In addition, we also discussed further cooperation in education and training to inherit the previous tradition from the Soviet era.

Currently, the educational cooperation between the two sides is very small in scale. The number of students from both countries is still very modest, but the good news is that in Uzbekistan there is the Oriental University, which has a Vietnamese language department with many students studying Vietnamese.

I hope that this visit will not only help maintain the good traditional friendship between Vietnam and Armenia and Uzbekistan, but also create new momentum to elevate the cooperative relationship to a new level, so that cooperation is substantive, effective and commensurate with the good political relationship between our two countries.

Currently, the ministries and branches of the two countries are exchanging cooperation documents. Accompanying the National Assembly Chairman are leaders of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Audit and some localities of our two countries.

Several ministries and localities of the two sides are increasing exchanges with each other, and I believe that after this visit, cooperation in all these areas will have a new step forward, and after the visit of the National Assembly Chairman, many leaders of both Uzbekistan and Armenia will visit Vietnam, many businessmen of these two countries will visit Vietnam, as well as Vietnamese businesses will come to learn about the markets of these two countries.

The most important thing is for both sides to understand each other, grasp the market and potential of both sides.

In fact, the potential for cooperation is huge. I will only share one experience. Uzbekistan really wants to connect more closely with ASEAN countries through Vietnam, and is also willing to become a bridge for Vietnam to connect with European countries.

Because Uzbekistan is currently reforming very strongly, opening up and many European businesses are investing in Uzbekistan.

In Armenia, we are the first country to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) of which Armenia is a member.

Within the bilateral framework, as well as within the EAEU framework, there are many opportunities for us to strengthen economic and trade cooperation. Currently, Vietnam and the EAEU are renegotiating the FTA, opening up more fields and products, and significantly reducing taxes on both sides.

I firmly believe that cooperation between Vietnam and Armenia within the bilateral framework and within the EAEU will develop strongly in the coming time.

- Could you please tell us the main features of the Vietnamese community living in these two countries?

Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi: The Vietnamese community in both Uzbekistan and Armenia is very small. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Armenia and Uzbekistan, the number of Vietnamese in these two countries decreased sharply. But in recent years, it has begun to grow again.

For example, in Uzbekistan there are about 40-50 people living, working and studying, many of whom have integrated well into the local society.

There are people who marry local people and have opened restaurants and companies, of course small scale, in tourism and commerce. And we also have agricultural cooperation here.

There are some Vietnamese experts who have come and are doing business. Some Vietnamese enterprises in the country and Vietnamese enterprises in the Russian Federation are also looking to expand their investment in Uzbekistan.

I firmly believe that with the momentum of economic development and trade cooperation between the two countries, our community will grow stronger and stronger. But the important thing is that Uzbekistan highly values the Vietnamese community and has a lot of support.

In Armenia, in recent years, there have been almost no Vietnamese people living there. But in 2024, especially in the first months of 2025, the number of Vietnamese people going to Armenia, especially Yerevan, increased very rapidly.

During a business trip to prepare for the visit of the National Assembly Chairman, we visited a Vietnamese restaurant. Of course, the owner of this restaurant is Russian and Armenian, and it is a franchise of Pho Bo restaurant in the Russian Federation, but the main chef is Vietnamese, and the food is very delicious.

We tried Pho and many other Vietnamese dishes which were very special and especially always crowded, especially on weekends. There were some young Vietnamese people who came here at a very young age and came to explore new opportunities.

Our community here is not yet officially formed, with about 20-30 people, traveling on tourist visas or in the process of completing paperwork. However, I believe that with the cooperation between the two countries, especially after the visit of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, as well as the potential and opportunities of the two countries in economic and trade cooperation, our community in the capital Yerevan will increase rapidly in the coming time.

Thank you, Ambassador./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thuc-day-quan-he-viet-nam-voi-uzbekistan-va-armenia-len-tam-cao-moi-post1024237.vnp