President Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to the Vietnam News Agency

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to the News Agency of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The text of the interview was provided by AZERTAG.

- On May 7-8, 2025, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam will make a state visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan. How do you assess the current bilateral relations and cooperation between our countries?

- First of all, I would like to note that Azerbaijan and Vietnam are connected by friendly relations that have a history of more than half a century. In 1959, the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh visited the Azerbaijan SSR. In 1983, the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who at that time held the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, made a trip to Vietnam. Undoubtedly, these landmark visits became a solid foundation for the development of cooperation between our countries.

My state visit to your country in 2014 and the official visit of the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Mr. Truong Tan Sang, to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 opened a new page in relations between our states and gave impetus to their further development. During President Truong Tan Sang's visit, the first Azerbaijan-Vietnam business forum was held, which, along with officials, was attended by representatives of business circles from the oil and gas, energy, construction, information and communication, financial, industrial, trade, tourism, transport, pharmaceutical and other sectors.

In order to develop cooperation in various fields and identify new areas of interaction, the Azerbaijan-Vietnam Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation has been established. The Commission serves as an important platform for regular dialogue and effective implementation of joint initiatives.

Political consultations are held through the ministries of foreign affairs, the latest of which took place in the second half of April this year. Working groups on inter-parliamentary relations operate in the parliaments of both countries.

Our countries effectively cooperate within the framework of major international organizations, including the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the UN.

Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the development of economic and trade relations with Vietnam. In 2024, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to 223.93 million US dollars. Undoubtedly, we have the potential to further increase this indicator.

Our countries also interact in the oil sector. In 2019, an agreement was signed between the Vietnamese state company Binh Son Refinery and Petrochemical Company and SOCAR. Our cooperation in the oil industry is based on a strong historical foundation, as Azerbaijani specialists played a key role in the creation and development of Vietnam's oil industry. It is no coincidence that the first general director of the joint venture Veso Petrol, established in 1981 with the assistance of the Soviet Union, was an Azerbaijani, Jalal Mammadov.

Our cooperation in the cultural, humanitarian, and educational spheres has its roots in the Soviet era and has been further developed in recent years. In 1955, Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev wrote the "Vietnamese Suite" for the first Soviet-Vietnamese documentary film about the war in Vietnam, which premiered in Hanoi in 2023. In 1959-1962, at the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh and at the suggestion of the Soviet government, Azerbaijani director Aj