France becomes Vietnam’s 8th comprehensive strategic partner

Vietnam and France have announced the upgrade of their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest tier of the former’s diplomatic hierarchy.

France has become the first of the European Union and the eighth nation worldwide to have such a partnership with Vietnam, after China, Russia, India, South Korea, the United States, Japan, and Australia.

As such, Vietnam has established such a partnership with four out of the five United Nations Security Council nations.

The upgrade was announced during official talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and visiting Party General Secretary and President To Lam in Paris on Monday.

Lam was on an official visit to France on October 6-7 at the invitation of President Macron. This was the first visit by a Vietnamese president to the European nation after 22 years.

Vietnam and France established diplomatic relations on April 12, 1973 and reached a bilateral comprehensive partnership in 2013.

The two leaders agreed on major directions and measures to deepen this partnership and make it more practical and aligned with the new context of bilateral cooperation.

The two sides reckoned national defense-security cooperation as a critical pillar of their partnership, committed to effectively implementing existing cooperation agreements, and agreed to hold the Vietnam-France Defense Strategy and Cooperation Dialogue soon.

Regarding economic and trade issues, France pledged to continue providing concessional loans and official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam. The two leaders encouraged businesses to make full use of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

To Lam called on France to expedite the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and back the European Commission to lift the “yellow card” warning against Vietnamese seafood exports.

For his part, President Macron pledged to recommend EVIPA ratification to the French parliament soon.

They agreed to strengthen joint work in areas of high potential, such as aerospace, artificial intelligence, and airport transport infrastructure. They also touched upon furthering cooperation in health, education, agriculture, and climate change response.

The two sides highly regard ASEAN's central role in the region and pledged to continue promoting France-ASEAN and EU-ASEAN relations. They also committed to supporting each other at multilateral forums and international organizations such as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the ASEAN-EU cooperation framework, the Francophonie, and the United Nations.

President Macron stressed that France highly valued Vietnam's stance on ending violence, easing tensions, and calling on all parties to resolve conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and other regions by peaceful means and in accordance with international law.

Regarding the South China Sea (referred to as the East Sea in Vietnam) issue, both sides reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation, and resolving disputes peacefully in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

Lam invited Macron to visit Vietnam soon, and the French leader accepted the invitation with pleasure.

In the framework of Lam’s visit, many documents and cooperation agreements in the realms of diplomacy, culture, education, transportation, and internal affairs were signed by ministries, agencies, and localities of the two countries.

France is Vietnam’s fifth-largest trade partner in Europe, with bilateral trade turnover reaching $4.8 billion in 2023 and $3.4 billion in the first eight months of this year.

France is among the biggest ODA donors for Vietnam in Europe.