PEACE-SOLIDARITY-FRIENDSHIP
During the past decades, despite many ups and downs in the world, the good relationship between Vietnam and the Czech Republic has always been maintained and developed.
The Vietnamese people always keep in mind the invaluable material and spiritual support and assistance of the Czechoslovakian people and Government, and now those of the Czech Republic, in their struggle for national liberation, as well as in the construction and defense of their country.
The 76th anniversary of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the Czech Republic Photo: Hoang Hai
Vietnam and the Czech Republic officially established diplomatic relations on February 2, 1950. Since then, the cooperative friendship between the two nations has been continuously consolidated and grown. The Czech Republic always attaches great importance to the policy of developing it, so does Vietnam, and the same as in regard with its former traditional friends in East Europe.
The exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, between the two countries takes place regularly. In a phone conversation with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis to discuss the bilateral relations, our Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sincerely thanked his counterpart and the Czech Government for the 250,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine donated to Vietnam. This was a timely and valuable aid, demonstrating the good friendship maintained over the past 70 years between the two nations.
The Czech Prime Minister expressed his gratitude for the valuable support that the Vietnam Government and the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic have given to the Czech people during the early stages of the Covd-19 epidemic. He said that, although the epidemic situation in the Czech Republic was still very complicated then, the Czech Government continued to cooperate with and support Vietnam, including transferring to the latter another 500,000 doses of vaccines and rapid testing kits…
As for trade and investment, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked the Czech Republic for actively backing Vietnam in the course of negotiating and signing the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, and for the Czech Republic having been the first country in the EU to ratify the Investment Protection Agreement. He suggested the two sides work closely to maximize the effectiveness of these agreements.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to step up cooperation in a number of priority fields such as the automobile industry, transportation, education and training, defense and security, sending Vietnamese nurses to work in the Czech Republic, creating a more favorable conditions for Vietnamese goods and agricultural products, especially seasonal fruits, to enter the Czech and EU markets, and launching direct flights between Vietnam and the Czech Republic soon.
As a member of the European Union, the Czech Republic always considers Vietnam a traditional and potential trading partner, a bridge to export its products to the ASEAN market.
The Czech Government appreciates Vietnam’s contributions to maintaining peace and stability in the world, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. Czech leaders shared concerns about the recent developments in the East Sea and supported Vietnam’s position to settle disputes at sea by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, especially ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and flight in the East Sea.
Vietnam attaches great importance to strengthening the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with the Czech Republic, the most important partner to Vietnam in East Europe, and wishes to promote the two countries’ relations more closely, substantively and effectively in economic-trade, investment, security, defense and other humanitarian fields.
Regarding the two Parties’ external relations, it is extremely important to strengthen the traditional friendship between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Czech-Morava Communist Party. It is necessary to build cooperative relations on the party channel with the ruling Coalition and other political parties that play an important role in Czech politics in order to create a solid basis for comprehensive promotion of bilateral cooperation.
As for people-to-people diplomacy, the Vietnam-Czech Friendship Association and its branch in Hanoi have contributed to promoting the comprehensive development of bilateral relations through practical meaningful people-to-people diplomacy activities such as organizing people-to-people exchanges and friendship meetings on important anniversaries and holidays of the two countries, charity activities, or humanitarian assistance, etc.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in the Czech Republic, the Vietnam - Czech Friendship Association and its branch in Hanoi proactively and promptly donated masks and medical equipment to the Czech people. In 2021, the Czech Government sent to Vietnam many pieces of medical equipment, as well as anti-Covid vaccines as said above, contributing to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in this country.
Together with the diplomacy at Party and State levels, people-to-people diplomacy will continue to promote its role to develop ceaselessly the traditional ties between Vietnam and the Czech Republic in many aspects, including culture and trade, tapping the potentialities and strengths of both sides.
Uyen Nhi