Vietnam, Poland agree to consider elevating relations to strategic partnership

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk have agreed that the two sides should consider upgrading relations to a strategic partnership soon, on the basis of high political trust and positive results of the 75-year traditional friendship.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk hold talks in Warsaw on January 16, 2024. Photo courtesy of Vietnam News Agency.

The leaders reached the agreement during their talks in Warsaw on Thursday during PM Chính’s official visit to the country.

Welcoming PM Chinh and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, the first high-ranking international delegation to officially visit Poland in 2025, he said the visit marks the beginning of the year celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations (1950-2025). It is expected to create new momentum to bring the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation into depth, substance and effectiveness.

PM Tusk affirmed that Vietnam has always been a close, traditional and long-standing friend of Poland and is currently one of the country’s leading partners in Southeast Asia.

PM Chinh said he highly appreciated Poland’s important socio-economic achievements, becoming the 20th largest economy in the world, and believed that Poland would continue to develop even more strongly.

He emphasized that the Vietnamese people always remember the Poland’s valuable support in the past struggle for national liberation, as well as in the current cause of national construction and development.

Poland has trained thousands of Vietnamese engineers, doctors and scientists in various fields. Poland’s iconic projects are still operating well in Vietnam, such as the Vietnam-Poland Friendship Hospital and the Vietnam-Poland High School.

Poland was one of the first European countries to provide valuable support to Vietnam in terms of vaccines and medical equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister said.

The Vietnamese leader affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to further strengthen the traditional friendship with Poland – Vietnam’s leading partner in the central and eastern Europe region.

He proposed six groups of major orientations to soon consider the bilateral relationship upgrading to a strategic level.

He noted that the two countries must strengthen political trust, increase contacts and exchanges of delegations at all levels, and on all channels of the Party, State, Government, National Assembly and people-to-people exchanges.

The two nations must also make economic cooperation to become an important pillar of bilateral relations and strive to soon bring the two-way trade turnover to $5 billion.

They vowed to foster ties in security-defence, transnational crime prevention, cyber security, education and training.

They pledged to intensify labor cooperation, which has been said to hold huge potential, especially human resource training in digital transformation, green transformation, the circular economy and chip manufacturing.

The two PMs also agreed to enhance people-to-people exchanges and work together on the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2025.

PM Chinh announced that Vietnam has decided to waive visas for Polish citizens in 2025.

They also affirmed their willingness to strengthen coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums such as the United Nations, the ASEAN-EU framework and affirm the readiness to become a bridge between ASEAN and Poland.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Vietnam is considered one of Poland’s most potential markets in the Asia-Pacific region. More Polish enterprises are interested in expanding their investment and business in Vietnam.

He affirmed that Poland will soon ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and EU Commission to soon remove the ‘yellow card’ imposed on Vietnam’s fishery exports to the EU market.

The two sides agreed to support and act as gateways for each other’s goods to enter the ASEAN and EU markets.

Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, including the East Sea (internationally known as South China Sea), PM Chinh asked Poland to support ASEAN’s central stance on the East Sea issue.

Accordingly, disputes and conflicts in the world need to be resolved by peaceful means, on the basis of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, especially UNCLOS 1982, contributing to maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation in the regions and the world, for global cooperation and prosperity, Chinh said.

PM Chinh invited the Polish PM to visit Vietnam soon.

The two leaders then witnessed the signing of a number of cooperation documents covering diplomacy and labour matters.