Vietnamese PM chairs welcome ceremony for Dutch PM
Hanoi, The Gulf Observer: Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a welcome ceremony for his visiting Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte in Hanoi Thursday morning.
This visit, which is taking place when Viet Nam and the Netherlands are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (1973-2023), is the third by the Dutch PM to Viet Nam since he took office in 2010, following PM Chính’s visit to the Netherlands nine months ago.
After the welcome ceremony, the two PMs enjoyed a photo exhibition featuring the land and people of Viet Nam and the growing Viet Nam-Netherlands relations before their talks.
Over the past 50 years, the Viet Nam-Netherlands relationship has developed strongly across all fields, especially investment, trade, sustainable agriculture and climate change response.
The two sides established their Strategic Partnership on Climate Change and Water Management in 2010, Strategic Partnership on Agriculture and Food Security in 2014 and Comprehensive Partnership in 2019.
Along with conducting the regular exchange of delegations, especially at high level, the two sides have maintained many bilateral cooperation mechanisms and supported each other at international forums and organisations.
The Netherlands is one of Viet Nam’s leading important and time-tested partners. It is currently Viet Nam’s biggest investor in the European Union with combined capital of US$13.5 billion in about 400 projects, and the largest importer of Vietnamese products in Europe, with two-way trade surpassing $11 billion. The Netherlands has provided non-refundable aid to many development projects and programmes in Viet Nam.
