President Vo Van Thuong and his spouse will pay an official visit to Austria, a State visit to Italy and a visit to the Vatican from July 23-28, at the invitations of President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Italy Sergio Mattarella and Pope Francis.

This will be the first visit to Austria by a Vietnamese President in the past 15 years, and the first trips to Italy and the Vatican by a Vietnamese head of state in the past seven years. The President’s visit to Italy will be also the most important highlight as the two countries are celebrating the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership in 2023.

Developing Vietnam’s relations with Austria, Italy in a more effective, practical direction

In 1972, when the war in Vietnam was not over, Austria was one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian nation. Over the past more than five decades, the bilateral relations have developed in many different fields.

In terms of politics and diplomacy, the two sides have maintained regular high-level and all-level meetings, and held phone talks, together with meetings on the sidelines of multilateral forums.

Austria is always among Vietnam’s top 10 trading partners in Europe while Vietnam is a leading trading partner of Austria in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with two-way trade reaching 2.79 billion USD last year. The European nation’s investment in Vietnam is valued at around 148 million USD.

The two countries have also stepped up their relations in other fields such as culture, education, and science and technology.

Meanwhile, Vietnam set up diplomatic ties with Italy on March 23, 1973. Since then, the bilateral political relationship has been consolidated and developed rapidly.

Especially, since the establishment of the Strategic Partnership in January 2013, the two countries have actively promoted practical and effective cooperation in all fields from politics, diplomacy, economy to science, education, defence – security, environmental protection, and connectivity between localities.

They have maintained regular high-level and all-level meetings, and bilateral collaboration mechanisms.

During high-level exchanges, Italy always affirms its determination to promote multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, and considers Vietnam as a priority country to develop relations in Southeast Asia.

Last year, two-way trade turnover reached more than 6.2 billion USD, up 11% year-on-year, and the figure is expected to rise to 7-8 billion USD each year. Italy is currently Vietnam’s third largest trading partner in the EU and ranks 36th out of countries and territories pouring capital into the nation. It has also provided 117 million EUR (130 million USD) in ODA for Vietnam.

Within the framework of President Thuong’s visits, he will hold talks with the leaders of Austria and Italy to discuss measures to promote cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, defence, security, labour and vocational training, renewable energy, and people-to-people exchanges.

The President will also have meetings with other leaders of the two countries and some of their localities, and receive leaders of several Italian political parties, and work with representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Positive progress in Vietnam – Vatican relations

The relationship between Vietnam and the Vatican has seen many positive development steps in recent years.

The two sides have maintained high-ranking visits, including trips to the Vatican by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in January 2013, President Nguyen Minh Triet in December 2009, President Tran Dai Quang in November 2016, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in January 2007 and October 2014, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in March 2014, and Standing Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh in October 2018; and visits to Vietnam by Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, in January 2015; Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Chairman of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference and member of the Council of Cardinals, in January 2016.

On March 31, 2023, the Vietnam – Holy See Joint Working Group held the 10th-round meeting in the Vatican under the co-chair of Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang and Monsignor Miroslaw Wachowski, Under-Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States.

Since 2011, the Holy See has sent its a non-resident Special Envoy to Vietnam./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency