Hanoi (VNA) – The relations betweenVietnam and Myanmar have seen remarkable strides since they signed a jointstatement upgrading ties to a comprehensive cooperative partnership in 2017,according to Vietnamese Ambassador to Myanmar Luan Thuy Duong.

Progress has been made across all five pillarsof the partnership, namely political cooperation, defence and securitycooperation, economic cooperation, socio-cultural, and people-to-peopleexchange, and regional and international cooperation, she said.

The ambassador cited statistics that showed two-waytrade reached 548.3 million USD in 2016, surpassing the goal of 500 millionUSD. 

In 2017, the bilateral trade hit 828.3 millionUSD, showing a year-on-year rise of 51 percent.

Meanwhile, Vietnam became the seventh largestforeign investor in Myanmar with 70 projects worth around 2 billion USD. 

Among the effective projects are: Hoang Anh GiaLai Complex Centre in Yangon, direct flights between Vietnam and Myanmar operatedby Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air, a branch of the Bank for Investment andDevelopment of Vietnam (BIDV), and the telecommunication network of Viettel inMyanmar (Mytel).

To date, more than 200 Vietnamese enterprises havemade their presence in Myanmar in various forms such as representative office,branch, joint venture and company with 100 percent of Vietnamese capital.

The bilateral cooperation in defence andsecurity has been deepened in an effective and practical manner with new contentfor cooperation such as exchanges of young officers, training in Vietnamese andMyanmar languages, military medicine, defence industry, border management,illegal migration control, and fighting smuggling.

Vietnam and Myanmar have also signed amemorandum of understanding (MOU) on culture and education cooperation,creating a momentum for cooperation programmes and exchanges in those fields.

During the official visit to Vietnam in April2018 by Myanmar State Counsellor, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister of theOffice of the President of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, the two countries definedmore clearly the direction of cooperation at present and in the future.

The two countries have emphasised the exchangeof delegations at all levels and channels, including the Party, Government andNational Assembly, with the party channel to be an important pillar.

Vietnamese and Myanmar leaders have alsoexpressed their determination to boost cooperation in trade-investment,security-defence, and agro-forestry-fishery in addition to finance and banking,education, health, justice, energy, oil and gas, tourism, transportation andtelecommunication.

The two countries will soon sign a plan ofactions for 2018-2023 to deploy their comprehensive cooperative partnershipeffectively.

The historical and cultural similarities are an advantagefor the two nations to promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural cooperationand community building.

However, the Vietnamese ambassador took notethat challenges and obstacles still remain in the process of promoting thepartnership between Vietnam and Myanmar, one of which is the sensitive issuesin their cooperation in politics and defence.  

From the bilateral aspect, both countries musttake care to observe the principle of non-interference in each other’s internalaffairs while sharing experience in stabilising political situation, ensuringsecurity, and promoting economy.

From the multilateral aspect, as ASEAN members,Vietnam and Myanmar must ensure that their bilateral relations do not interferewith multilateral cooperation and vice versa.

At the same time, the complexity of Myanmar’sinternal politics forces the Government to concentrate most of its resources ondealing with it, thus it will be a great challenge to maintain a stablediplomatic policy.

Thirdly, given the current complex situation inthe region and the world, when the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is beinginternationalised and the East Sea issue is threatening the sovereignty ofVietnam, both countries are bearing a lot of pressure from the outside.Therefore, the two countries need to trust each other, share views andinformation more often and provide mutual support at regional and internationalforums to ensure the sustainable development of their ties.

Myanmar is among the first countries toestablish friendly ties with Vietnam. In1947, Vietnam set up its first liaison office in Yangon. The two sides agreedto upgrade the liaison office to an information and propaganda office in 1948, andto Consulate General in 1957. On May 28, 1975, the two countries officiallyestablished diplomatic relations.-VNA