Hanoi (VNA) – The official visit to Vietnamby Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou from May 15-19 is expected tocontribute to consolidating political trust and deepening the multi-facetedcooperation between the two countries.

The visit takes place in the context that the traditionalfriendship is developing fruitfully, with conversations and meetings between the two countries’leaders maintained despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam and Greece established diplomatic ties onApril 15, 1975. Greece opened its embassy in Hanoi in March 2007, while Vietnamopened its embassy in Athens in December 2010 and officially inaugurated it onMarch 26, 2012.

Despite having to address a public-debt crisis witha range of political, economic and social issues, along with the migrationcrisis over the past time, Greece has placed importance to its relations withVietnam.

Two-way trade has grown rapidly over the past fiveyears, surpassing 446 million USD in 2021, up 33 percent year-on-year. Notably,Vietnam’s exports to Greece have expanded strongly and the country has always runa large trade surplus with Greece.

Vietnam mainly ships footwear, garments-textiles, andaquatic and timber products to Greece. It is noteworthy that as from 2013,Vietnam’s mobile phone exports to the Southeast European nation rose significantly,from 73.9 million USD in 2014 to 116 million USD in 2020.

The country imports a small volume of paper andpaperboard, and materials for tobacco production from Greece.

In development cooperation, Greece has provided aid for ethnic minority groups, flood victims, people with disabilities andAgent Orange (AO)/dioxin victims in Vietnam, through building a 200,000 USDschool in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, donating 100,000 USD to thefund for AO victims, and presenting 100 wheelchairs to local disabled people,and other activities.

Vietnam and Greece have signed a number ofcooperation documents to promote their bilateral ties, including a frameworkcooperation on collaboration in economy, industry and technology in 1996,another on tourism cooperation in 2007, an agreement on cultural cooperation in2008, another on investment encouragement and protection in 2008, a tourism agreementin 2013, and one on visa exemption for diplomatic passport holders in 2018, toname but a few.

Greece is one of the first EU countries to ratify the EU-VietnamInvestment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and back Vietnam’s candidacy for membershipof the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-2025./.