President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet (Translated from Russian): We wish you a warm welcome, Mr President. We are very happy to see you here. We highly value Russia’s contribution to the APEC summit that has just taken place.
This is your second visit to Vietnam and it will help strengthen the ties and develop cooperation between our two peoples. This is a sign of the attention Russia gives our country. The fact that such a large and influential delegation is accompanying you on this visit makes us very happy indeed.
Thank you, and I wish you good health and a good stay in Vietnam.
President Vladimir Putin: Mr President,
First of all, allow me to thank you for the invitation to take part in the APEC summit and make this visit.
We would like to congratulate you on the success you have had in your country’s social and economic development. This is a victory for your country and your friends are happy to see the results that Vietnam and the Vietnamese people have achieved.
The major event that has just taken place here, the APEC summit, is a sign of Vietnam’s growing international influence. I would like to offer you my sincere congratulations on the summit’s successful conclusion.
I am happy to note that relations between our countries are developing in accordance with the spirit of our Declaration on Strategic Partnership. I am sure that today’s meeting in Hanoi will give an impulse to the further development of our bilateral and multilateral contacts. Our countries are bound by traditions of friendship and mutual support, traditions that have only grown stronger since being laid during the years of Vietnam’s fight for its independence. In confirmation of this, I would like to present you with copies of documents from Russian archives on the time that Comrade Ho Chi Minh spent in the Soviet Union in 1923, 1924, 1936 and 1937. Here are the copies of documents and photographs.