On the afternoon of April 22, at the Government Headquarters, Politburo Member, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung received Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia Margus Tsahkna on the occasion of his official visit to Vietnam. Also attending were leaders of the Government Office and Ministries: Foreign Affairs, Industry and Trade, Science and Technology.
The Prime Minister welcomed the visit to Vietnam of Minister Margus Tsahkna and the Estonian business delegation accompanying the Minister; affirmed that Vietnam always values the consolidation and development of relations with traditional friendly countries, in which Estonia is a priority partner in the Baltic region and an active member of the EU.
On the basis of the good relations between the two countries and the great potential for cooperation, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung proposed that the two sides strengthen contacts and exchange delegations at all levels, especially at high levels, to strengthen political trust; create substantive changes in economic - trade and investment cooperation, strive to further increase bilateral trade turnover in the coming time; proposed that Estonia have a voice to promote the remaining EU countries to soon ratify the Vietnam - EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), contributing to creating a breakthrough in trade and investment between the two countries, promoting the European Commission to soon remove the yellow card (IUU) for Vietnamese seafood exports; actively deploy the main pillars of the two countries on digital transformation, digital economy and innovation; strengthen cooperation in the fields of defense - security, education and training.
Regarding priority areas, the Prime Minister highly appreciated Estonia's strengths in technology, artificial intelligence, innovation and digital transformation; requested Estonia to strengthen experience sharing, technology transfer and support Vietnam in priority areas, focusing on developing e-government, comprehensive digital transformation, building and operating data centers, ensuring network safety and security; and at the same time promote cooperation in robot technology, smart manufacturing, industrial automation, artificial intelligence (AI) application, contributing to improving labor productivity and competitiveness of the Vietnamese economy.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna expressed his honor to be the first EU Foreign Minister to officially visit Vietnam after Vietnam consolidated its senior leadership positions and government apparatus.
Minister Margus Tsahkna affirmed that Estonia highly values relations with Vietnam, considers Vietnam one of the most important partners in Southeast Asia and wishes to strengthen close cooperation, bringing the traditional friendly relations and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Estonia to develop more and more substantively and effectively.
The Minister affirmed that the Estonian side highly agreed with the major orientations of Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and is ready to coordinate effective implementation; emphasized that the Estonian side will support Vietnam in training and developing high-quality human resources, especially in the fields of information technology, digital economy, artificial intelligence; said that the delegation included representatives of about 10 typical businesses of Estonia operating in many strong fields, showing that the Estonian side is very interested in cooperating with Vietnam in an increasingly practical and effective direction, focusing on fields suitable for Vietnam's development needs such as digital economy, green economy, circular economy and energy.
