State President Tran Dai Quang and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a recent interview, he said the bilateral relations were lifted up to comprehensive strategic partnership and high-level political dialogues have been deepened over the past five years.State President Tran Dai Quang’s official visit to Russia from June 28-July 1 is of significant importance as it is the first visit of the State President since he took office in 2016, the Russian diplomat said.

State President Quang and Russian President Vladimir Putin had bilateral meetings in Lima, Peru and in Beijing, China last year, which have helped increase personal understanding between the two  leaders.

Ambassador Vnukov said the two leaders share the same wish to reach concrete outcomes, thus contributing to the success of their meetings.

During State President Quang’s visit, both sides will discuss opportunities to expand cooperation in energy, industry, transport, high-technology, agriculture processing, and especially military technical cooperation.

State President Quang is expected to meet with leaders of Russia’s major businesses operating in Viet Nam, attend a business forum among other activities.

Ambassador Vnukov expressed his belief that leaders of the two countries will reach agreements to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of a treaty on basic principle for bilateral friendship and cooperation in 2019.

Regarding the progress of the bilateral ties, the Ambassador highlighted that Viet Nam is the first country to sign free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.

The free trade agreement, which took effect on October 5, 2016, has helped raise the two-way trade value to US$1.1 billion, up 31% in the first four months this year. This is an encouraging signal for the two sides to achieve the target of US$10 billion by 2020./.