.RF, Vietnam mark 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations-1.

30/1 Tass 52

HANOI, January 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Relations between Russia and Vietnam
- - "invaluable treasure belonging to the peoples of our countries,"
Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister of Vietnam Pham Gia Khiem said in
an exclusive interview with ITAR-TASS on the occasion of the 60th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries which is marked on Saturday.

As the Vietnamese foreign minister said, over the past six decades,
the two states have exerted a lot of efforts to strengthen and develop
interaction. "The Vietnamese people will always remember with gratitude
that huge aid which the fraternal Russian people rendered to it in the
fight for liberation and unification of the Motherland, as well as the
current period of the country's peaceful building," the minister said.
Assessing the present state of bilateral ties, Pham Gia Khiem noted
that in the last years, relations of traditional friendship and strategic
partnership between Vietnam and the Russian Federation "have been
continuously expanding and developing in many directions." With every
passing day, as the minister noted, political contacts have been
strengthening, Vietnam and Russia has established a mechanism of
successful interaction at high, ministerial and local levels.
Pham Gia Khiem also said that Hanoi and Moscow continue to closely and
effectively interact within the framework of regional and international
organizations and forums - - the United Nations, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Forum.
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