Top legislator’s Kazakhstan visit gives fresh impetus to bilateral ties

The top legislator is leading a high-ranking Vietnamese NA delegation to visit Kazakhstan on October 16-18 at the invitation of Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament Kassym Zhomart Tokayev, and the Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament Nurlan Nigmatulin.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992, Vietnam and Kazakhstan have enjoyed the sound relations of friendship and fruitful traditional cooperation, closely coordinated and offered mutual support at the UN and international forums.

The good relationships have been demonstrated by senior leaders’ regular exchange visits, typically President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to Vietnam in 2011 and the visits of former State President Truong Tan Sang to Kazakhstan in 2012 and former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in 2015.

Although both nations are members of the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA) which came into effect in October 2016, their economic cooperation and trade exchange are still below their full potential.

Regarding legislative ties, the two countries have maintained cooperation ties within the bilateral framework and at multilateral parliamentary forums, and regular exchange visits, and have set up a Friendship Parliamentarian Group aiming to bolster cooperation and exchanges between parliamentarians and the two-law making bodies.

Ms Ngan’s visit will make greater contributions to consolidating the time-honoured friendship between the two countries, particularly between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and other Kazakhstani political parties such as Nur Otan and Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan. Her trip will promise to further promote bilateral affiliation in economics, trade, investment, energy, culture and education.

Through the visit, both sides will discuss specific measures to take full advantage of VN-EAEU FTA and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

The visit will also help augment cooperation in information and operational experience exchanges between Vietnamese NA members and their Kazakhstani counterparts, and build a closer connection between NA deputies with the overseas Vietnamese community in Kazakhstan.