Ha Noi, Buenos Aires spur local-to-local relations

 The Chairman made the point at a meeting with Matías López, First Vice President of the Buenos Aires City Council in the Argentine capital on August 12.

He wanted to promote potential cooperation opportunities and support Vietnamese and Argentine businesses to operate in both countries.

The Ha Noi official also hoped that the two parties would strengthen cultural and artistic exchanges, foster people-to-people interactions, and advertise the cultural and historical values of Ha Noi and Buenos Aires to contribute to the overall success of the Viet Nam-Argentina bilateral relations.

Vietnamese and Argentine people share a close friendship and mutual support, Tuan said as he led a Ha Noi delegation to Buenos Aires.

"Viet Nam always cherishes Argentina's strong assistance for our cause of national liberation," he told the meeting, which was part of the Ha Noi delegation's visit to Buenos Aires.

Argentina is one of the first three Latin American countries to establish diplomatic relations with Viet Nam.

For more than 50 years, the bilateral relationship was upgraded to a Comprehensive Partnership in 2010 and has advanced across various sectors.

With the substantial potential for collaboration, Tuan expected that Ha Noi and Buenos Aires would identify key collaborative fields and put agreements into practice.

On this occasion, Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Tuan extended a formal invitation for Buenos Aires' leadership to visit Ha Noi at their earliest convenience.

For his part, Matías appreciated that the meeting had effectively bridged the gap between the two capitals despite their geographic distance. He added that the authorities and people of Argentina always admire Viet Nam's historical resilience and respect their determination in the wars.

Viet Nam remains a top-priority partner for Argentina in the Asia-Pacific region, he said, adding that Buenos Aires looks forward to strengthening cooperation with Ha Noi per the two cities' 2008 Memorandum of Understanding, which covers urban management, public transportation, human resource training, innovation, biotechnology, digital transformation, investment, trade, tourism, and cultural exchange.

At their meeting, both sides agreed to resume bilateral communication and tasked their foreign affairs agencies to review the MoU and propose detailed future collaborative activities.

During the visit, the delegation also met with leaders of the Buenos Aires' justice and foreign affairs departments. The parties discussed economic and social development and shared experiences on government organization, electoral processes, oversight mechanisms, financial management, and international relations./.