Russia announced the prospect of cooperation with Vietnam in the near future amid economic isolation from the world, while strong sanctions from the West against Moscow forced Vietnam to stop exporting pangasius. slip into this country.
Vietnam, a close strategic partner of Russia, was among the countries that abstained last week on a UN resolution condemning and calling on Moscow to end its aggression in Ukraine.
While the West and a number of Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, imposed the heaviest sanctions ever against Russia, the Vietnam News Agency on March 2 released an announcement about the prospect of enhancing economic cooperation between Vietnam and Russia.
The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondent in Russia said that the official electronic portal of Moscow city, ie Moscow, of Russia on March 2 announced data summarizing trade exchanges between Moscow and Vietnam in 2021, according to which the export turnover of the Russian capital with Vietnamese localities reached $3.9 billion and achieved a growth of 36% on the year.
The deputy mayor of Moscow was quoted by the VNA as saying that Vietnam “is one of (Russia’s) important partners in the Asia-Pacific region.”
VNA also quoted the Director of Moscow’s Department of Investment and Industrial Policy, Alexander Prokhorov, as talking about “positive trends” in cooperation between the two countries with growth figures in the export of many items. The news agency also recalled the meeting between the Vietnamese Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Dang Minh Khoi, and the Presidential Advisor of the Russian Federation, Anton Kobyakov, in which the Russian side “expressed confidence that bilateral cooperation trade and investment between the two countries have a lot of growth potential.”
Although Vietnam has not imposed any economic sanctions on Russia, which is currently a leading supplier of weapons to Vietnam, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on March 7 announced to suspend catfish exports to Russia because of the war.
Russia is one of the most potential markets for Vietnamese pangasius with export value reaching $32.5 million last year, up 72.5% year-on-year, according to VASEP.
The association said it stopped exporting pangasius to Russia because, according to exporters, buyers were unable to pay due to the global sanctions.
Unprecedented Western sanctions have kicked Russian banks out of the SWIFT global payment system because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Visa and Mastercard have also announced to suspend all their operations in Russia and stop all transactions there.
According to VASEP, these financial sanctions have caused the Russian ruble to depreciate and therefore many importers are reluctant to pay orders. This association said that Vietnamese businesses have temporarily stopped signing pangasius export orders to Russia, although many importers still wish to continue cooperation without interruption.
Vietnam and Russia signed a free trade agreement in 2015 and bilateral trade turnover between Russia and Vietnam has doubled thanks to this agreement, reaching nearly $5 billion in 2020.
Although the trade turnover between Vietnam and Russia is not much, far less than nearly $100 billion between Vietnam and the US, cooperation with Russia accounts for about 85% of Vietnam’s total oil and gas production. VietsoPetro joint venture, after 40 years of cooperation, is still the main partner of Vietnam’s oil and gas exploration industry.
Translated by Thoibao.de from the original source: https://www.voatiengviet.com/a/viet-nam-nga-tang-cuong-hop-tac-giua-lan-song-che-tai-cua-the-gioi-len-moscow/6473687.html
