On October 19, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem received the new German Ambassador to Vietnam Rolf Peter Gottfied Schulze, who paid a courtesy visit after taking office in Vietnam.

Mr Khiem spoke highly of the cooperative relations between Vietnam and Germany, saying that Germany is one of Vietnam’s leading partners in the EU community.

With their fine long-standing time-honoured friendship, both countries should increase future cooperation in economics, trade and investment, which has still not lived up to their expectations, said Mr Khiem.

For his part, Mr Schulze congratulated Vietnam on its election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, which, he said, shows the amount of trust the international community has in the country as it collected a high numbers of votes in favour. He expressed his belief that Vietnam will perform its new role with full responsibility.

Vietnam-Germany relations have developed positively in recent times as political relations have been promoted bilaterally and multilaterally and their cooperation in economics and trade has made great strides forward.

The Germany diplomat also called on Vietnam to continue improving its business environment to facilitate Germany businesses’ investment in the country.

Earlier the same day, Mr Khiem also received Bulgarian Ambassador to Vietnam Georgi Konstantinov, who has recently been appointed to Vietnam.