The talks, also attended by the countries’ senior officials, took place following the welcome ceremony for the Vietnamese leader at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow.

Russian Prime Minister Medvedev congratulated the Communist Party of Vietnam on successfully holding the 12th National Congress, which set up important guidelines for Vietnam’s future development.

He welcomed the first visit to Russia by Nguyen Xuan Phuc as the Vietnamese government’s leader, adding that his country considered Vietnam one of its top Asian-Pacific partners.

Phuc spoke highly of Russia’s development and its growing stature in the world. He stressed Vietnam’s policy of promoting the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia.

Expressing delight at their countries’ growing political trust, the PMs agreed to continue all-level delegation exchanges and existing dialogue mechanisms.

They agreed to make efforts to shore up bilateral trade through creating favourable conditions for trade activities, fostering trade promotion events, boosting payment by using their domestic currencies, and capitalising on the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement, of which Russia is a member.

Phuc thanked Russia’s central and local authorities for providing good conditions for Vietnamese people, adding that the Vietnamese community would continue contributing to the two nations’ friendship.

At the talks, the two leaders discussed international and regional issues of mutual concern. They agreed to work more closely at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, the Asia-Europe Meeting, and Asean.

The Vietnamese side also expressed hope for the success of the Asean-Russia Summit to be held in Russia. The event, which marks the 20th founding anniversary of their dialogue relationship, will bring Asean-Russia relations to a new height.

The Russian PM said his country was willing to co-operate with Vietnam in various fields such as telecommunications, banking, automobile assembly, finance, machine manufacturing, shipbuilding, mineral mining and agriculture.

PM Phuc highly valued the long-standing and close-knit rapport between Vietnamese and Russian people.

He noted that during the bilateral talks both sides discussed and agreed to increase two-way trade, which is standing at US$4 billion, via the exchange of goods that are of respective strengths.

The two government leaders also concurred to pushing ahead with co-operation programmes and projects in energy, oil and gas, breeding and farm produce, he said.

The two PMs said they agreed to prepare for the implementation of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which is expected to take effect soon and bring opportunities to expand bilateral trade.

They agreed to expand co-ordination across fields of high potential, particularly tourism, services and advanced technology.