Hungarian-Vietnamese political relations

The Republic of Hungary and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have enjoyed a fine traditional relationship in all cooperative areas. In July 2005, the Hungarian Prime Minister paid an official visit to Vietnam for the first time over the past 33 years. This visit has reiterated the mutual political confidence and put forth the strategic steps for strengthening our relations in the coming years: from both sides, we attach special importance to the development of economic cooperation and the improvement of trade volume.

Favorable conditions in Vietnam have been defined to realize successfully the new Asian policy of the Hungarian Government. Despite the changes in both countries’ internal affairs, our two countries’ relations have increasingly developed while maintaining the elements of intact value, and reached up to the modern standard in international comparison. The available resources of Hungary- Vietnam relations (about 3000 intellectuals has graduated from training institutes of higher education in Hungary), cooperative experiences over decades will ensure a firm foundation for further deepening and broadening the bilateral relations between our two countries.

Since 2004, Hungary’s international development cooperation activities have emerged as a new factor, we have become an active member of international donor group in Vietnam. The European Union also recognizes the strong points of our development policy, which include the exchange of experiences in institution transition.

The Hungarian Parliament and Vietnamese National Assembly together are maintaining and developing their very good relationship. The two legislative bodies have established frequent contacts: in 2003, the President of Hungary – Indochina Friendship Parliamentary Group under the Inter- Parliament Union IPU and Speaker of Hungarian Parliament Szili Katalin visited the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In the meantime, the National Assembly delegations of Socialist Republic of Vietnam also paid a number of visits to Hungary. Through study and experience-exchange visits Vietnamese friends made acquaintance with many areas in the legislative work as well as the activities of Hungarian Parliament.