The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that on the morning of May 6, after a solemn state-level welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace, General Secretary To Lam held talks with President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
At the talks, the two leaders expressed their pleasure to the traditional friendship of Vietnam - Kazakhstan has been constantly developing over the years and increasingly actually, effectively and the visit of General Secretary To Lam is a historic milestone opening a new period in friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries with the two sides agreed to upgrade Vietnam - Kazakhstan relations to strategic partners.
The two leaders affirmed that the establishment of a new framework for relations will contribute to strengthening more than 5 current connections between the two countries, including: Human connection, economic connection, policy connection, traffic connection and inter-regional connection.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his pride in being the first strategic partner in the Central Asian region of Vietnam, affirming that this is a historic event in the relationship between the two countries, creating a more solid foundation for developing relations in all fields.
General Secretary To Lam and President Tokayev agreed to continue to deepen political trust between the two countries through promoting delegation exchanges at all levels, especially at high levels, through all channels and people-to-people exchanges to strengthen a solid political and social foundation, expand cooperation in all other areas; further promote defense and security cooperation, promote cooperation in defense industry and military engineering.
The two leaders appreciated the positive developments in economic, trade and investment cooperation; affirmed that the two economies have great potential for further development; believed that the newly established strategic partnership will breathe new life into economic relations between the two countries, doubling trade turnover in the coming time.
The two sides agreed to strive to increase bilateral trade turnover to 5 billion USD by 2030. The President of Kazakhstan affirmed his readiness to create the best conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to do business in Kazakhstan and the two countries to have good mechanisms and policies, open direct flights, and open visa policies for enterprises of the two countries to strengthen cooperation. Kazakhstan will increase imports of Vietnam's key products such as garments and footwear.
General Secretary To Lam and President Tokayev highly appreciated the potential in the fields of energy - mining, transportation - logistics, finance, tourism, education - training, human resource development, science - technology; affirmed that these are all bright spots in the relationship between the two countries in the coming time and are at the same time a focus in economic development of the two countries.
The General Secretary said that the two sides have great potential to further strengthen relations and strengths to complement each other, enhance connections, people-to-people exchanges, and tourism cooperation when Vietnam has beautiful beaches and Kazakhstan has vast grasslands.
General Secretary To Lam expressed his gratitude to the President and the Kazakhstan government for their attention and creating favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live, work and study stably in Kazakhstan.
Exchanging regional and international issues of concern, the two sides emphasized solving disagreements and differences by peaceful measures, on the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter; Support ASEAN's position in the East Sea issue in accordance with international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the 1982 Law of the Sea.
