President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, friends, let me wish you a warm welcome to Moscow.
I know that you have a very busy programme. You just met with the Russian Prime Minister, and you will meet with the speakers of both houses of parliament, and then you will travel to St Petersburg.
I am sure that your visit will be a good boost for further developing the strong friendly and strategic ties between our countries.
In 2019, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of our founding agreement on friendship, and we could organise reciprocal years of Russia in Vietnam and Vietnam in Russia to mark this date.
On economic matters, we had a drop in bilateral trade last year, by 1.5 percent, but trade was up by 16.5 percent in the first four months of this year, and this is a very good trend.
We have very good plans and big projects. We are very pleased to see you and have the chance to discuss all of this.
President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Dai Quang (retranslated): Mr President, Russian friends,
It is a great pleasure to visit the Russian Federation. This is my first visit as President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I thank the Russian government and people for this warm welcome.
I am pleased to see that our traditionally friendly ties have been developing well over these last years, especially since the comprehensive strategic partnership began.
I agree with you that we could hold reciprocal years of Russia in Vietnam and Vietnam in Russia in order to mark the 25th anniversary of our friendship agreement.
I have visited Russia before, though this is my first visit in this capacity, and so I have had the chance to see Russia’s many recent achievements. I want to congratulate you on this success because we see that Russia is developing despite the difficulties, challenges and sanctions.
You have succeeded in preserving political stability and developing your economy. We are happy for you and congratulate you once more on this success. Vietnam’s people welcome your achievements and see them as our success too.
I want to pass on warm greetings from our General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Vietnam’s other senior leaders.
We thank you for accepting the invitation to take part in the APEC summit at the end of this year and make an official visit to Vietnam at the same time.
We look forward to seeing you on our soil.
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