On September 4, at the Presidential Office, General Secretary and President To Lam received French Ambassador to Vietnam Olivier Brochet to say goodbye on the occasion of the end of his term of office in Vietnam.
At the reception, General Secretary and President To Lam congratulated Ambassador Olivier Brochet on successfully completing his term of office; acknowledged the enthusiastic, active, responsible, and effective contributions of the Ambassador and the French Embassy in promoting Vietnam-France relations in the past three years.
The General Secretary and President emphasized that the Ambassador's term takes place in a particularly important period, with many high-level exchanges and contacts, notably the milestone of the two countries upgrading relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in October 2024.
General Secretary and President affirmed that Vietnam always values relations with France, Vietnam's first comprehensive strategic partner in the European Union; believing that the relationship between the two countries currently has a favorable political foundation, high level of trust and increasingly expanded cooperation in many fields. The adoption of the Action Plan for the period 2026 - 2028 is an important step to concretize the new relationship framework, creating more motivation for bilateral cooperation in the coming time.
Expressing joy at the cooperation results achieved, the General Secretary and President assessed that economic, trade and investment cooperation is increasingly playing an important role, with many new projects in areas where France has strengths and Vietnam has needs such as aviation - aerospace, energy, transportation, railways. Traditional fields such as culture, health, education - training, justice and local cooperation continue to develop positively; science - technology is increasingly becoming a new direction of cooperation with strategic significance.
Regarding the direction for the coming time, the General Secretary and President requested the two sides to maintain high-level exchanges and contacts; effectively implement existing cooperation mechanisms and agreements; proactively expand new cooperation fields suitable to the development requirements of each country. The two sides need to prioritize promoting cooperation in science and technology, innovation, defense and security, connecting businesses and localities, education and training, French language training, culture and people-to-people exchanges.
Affirming that Vietnam is ready to create favorable conditions for French businesses and investors to operate long-term and effectively in Vietnam, the General Secretary and President requested France to encourage businesses to increase investment and expand operations in Vietnam; promote early ratification of the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), contributing to creating more favorable conditions for investment cooperation between the two countries.
The General Secretary and President requested Ambassador Olivier Brochet, in his new position at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, to continue to contribute to advisory work, promote exchanges between diplomatic missions of the two countries, expand cooperation in training and education, especially French, cadre training, connecting businesses, localities and people-to-people exchanges, thereby contributing to bringing the Vietnam - France Comprehensive Strategic Partnership relationship to become increasingly deeper.
Ambassador Olivier Brochet expressed his emotion at being given time by General Secretary and President To Lam to receive him; thanked the General Secretary and President for their concern for Vietnam-France relations as well as for the Ambassador personally during his time working in Vietnam.
The Ambassador said he was very honored and proud to assume the position of French Ambassador to Vietnam in a period when relations between the two countries had many important milestones, especially since being upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2024, which has achieved many very positive development results.
Sharing deep feelings and impressions about the country and people of Vietnam, the Ambassador highly appreciated the development achievements as well as Vietnam's increasing role and position; affirming that France wishes to accompany Vietnam in the current new era.
The Ambassador expressed his pleasure in contributing to the process of upgrading relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and affirmed that in his new position, he will continue to pay attention to and support the promotion of Vietnam-France relations in strategic and practical cooperation fields in the coming time.
