By RIA Novosti,
Hanoi : Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet arrives on an official four-day visit to Russia on Sunday at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said.
On the eve of the visit, Vietnam’s leadership said it wanted to step up cooperation with Russia in all the spheres.
“We intend to discuss with the Russian leadership the issues of intensifying interaction in all the spheres – political, defense and security, economic and investment, cultural and educational areas. Cooperation with Russia is comprehensive,” Triet told RIA Novosti.
The Vietnamese president also said Hanoi was ready to grant Russian investors the most favored treatment regime, adding that Vietnam wanted Russia to participate in the country’s large-scale and key projects, which would boost mutual trade and investment.
Trade between Russia and Vietnam in the first seven months of the year exceeded $1 billion, and may reach a record $1.6 billion by the end of 2008. This year more than 70,000 Russians visited Vietnam comprising 17% of all tourist numbers to the Southeast Asian country.