President’s visit hoped to lift Vietnam-Italy ties to new height

Expanding political-diplomatic relations

Since Vietnam and Italy set up their diplomatic relations on March 23, 1973, the two countries have enjoyed a rapidly growing political relationship.

Particularly, since they lifted their ties to a strategic partnership in January, 2013, the two sides have actively promoted their substantial and effective cooperation in all fields, from politics, diplomacy to economy, science, education, defence-security, environmental protection, and locality-to-locality collaboration.

Vietnam and Italy have maintained many bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the annual strategic dialogue at the deputy foreign ministerial level and the defence policy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level, as well as the Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation and Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation.

High-level delegation exchanges and meetings between the two countries have been maintained. Most recently, in December 2022, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the ASEAN-EU Summit in Brussels.

During the COVID-19 pandemic period, Deputy Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh had an online conversation in May 2020, while PM Chinh and his counterpart Mario Draghi also met online in April 2022.

In high-level talks, Italy always affirmed its determination to promote all-round ties with Vietnam, considering Vietnam as a priority for developing ties in the Southeast Asian region.

In terms of defence cooperation, right after the establishment of their strategic partnership, the two Ministries of Defence signed a memorandum of understanding in this field, marking a new step forward and creating a framework for bilateral defence ties. Over the years, the two countries have promoted their partnership in all three aspects of defence policy, defence military, and defence industry.

Italy pledged to transfer the technology to manufacture military and civil vessels to Vietnam and to share its experience in UN peacekeeping operations.

The two countries have also been working together in programmes to train police officers, preserve heritage, and responding to climate change.

They have completed negotiations on the Agreement on Extradition and Transfer of Convicted Persons (2022), and the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance (2022).

Bright spot in trade-investment cooperation

Vietnam remains one of the 10 emerging countries prioritised for trade and investment cooperation development by Italy until 2030. The two countries have created favourable conditions for businesses of each other to cooperate in areas of Italy’s strength and Vietnam’s demand such as mechanical engineering, infrastructure, garment and textiles, footwear, wood processing, supporting industries, building materials, oil and gas, renewable energy, and food processing.

At present, Vietnam is Italy's largest trading partner in ASEAN, with two-way trade reaching US$6.2 billion in 2022, up 11% compared to 2021, according to the Vietnam Customs. Specifically, Vietnam's exports to Italy last year totaled US$4.4 billion, up 14% over the previous year, and its imports from Italy - US$1.7 billion, up 3.6%.

In the first four months of 2023, two-way trade topped 2 billion USD, down 2.7% from the same period in 2022, in which exports decreased by 3%.

Vietnam's main exports to the Italian market include machinery, equipment, telephones and components, computers and components, means of transport and spare parts, iron and steel, coffee, textiles, and seafood.

Meanwhile, Vietnam mainly imports from Italy mechanical machinery and equipment, plastic and plastic products, pharmaceuticals, furniture, textile accessories, beverages, alcohol.

A representative of the European-American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said Vietnamese products that have a competitive advantage when exported to Italy are cashew nuts, coffee, pepper, phones, components, and footwear.

Vietnamese products with room for further thriving in the Italian market include seafood, vegetables, fruit, cinnamon, star anise, textiles and garment, electric motors, phones, honey, pharmaceuticals, machinery and spare parts, and wood products.

The two countries also collaborate closely in garment-textile, leather-footwear, stone mining and energy. 

The MoIT and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the energy field in 2019, and the Vietnamese side is finalising internal procedures to extend the MoU.

The two sides are also pushing ahead with oil and gas exploration in the Ken Bau field with the participation of Italy’s Eni Group. The Italian Government and Eni Group also want to expand cooperation with Vietnam in other energy areas such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable energy. 

The Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation, established in 2014, has held seven meetings and proposed cooperation contents, which contributes to pushing the two-way trade.

The two sides are discussing the content of the 8th meeting of the joint committee, slated to take place in Rome in October this year.

Promoting partnership in culture, education, science-technology, tourism

In terms of culture, the two sides have regularly organised cultural weeks and months in Italy and Vietnam on special occasions.

Between 2003 and 2013, the Italian Government coordinated with UNESCO to support Vietnam in restoring the My Son relic site at a total cost of US$1.5 million. Vietnam licenced the establishment of the Italian House in Hanoi in 2019 and the Italian Cultural Institute in the city in 2022.

Various cultural activities have also been organised between the two countries in 2023.

Regarding education-training cooperation, the action programme on bilateral education cooperation in the 2019-2022 period focused on developing language collaboration, with the Italian side providing teaching equipment and scholarships to Vietnam. The two sides have encouraged universities and education facilities to cooperate with each other, while Italy has provided EUR1.27 million (US$1.40 million) to the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy to enhance its training and research capacity.

The two sides organised a Vietnam-Italy education forum in 2014, and plan to hold the third edition of the event in 2023.

The Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation was formed in November 1998 with seven meetings held. The two sides approved seven cooperation programmes on science and technology cooperation with more than 90 joint projects.

In 2023, leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology plan to visit Italy and co-chair the eighth meeting of the Joint Committee on Science and Technology.

In the 2021-2023 period, the two sides have implemented 11 joint projects in different areas.

As for tourism, the number of Italian visitors to Vietnam increased about 15% each year in the 2015-2019 period.

In 2019, Vietnam welcomed 70.8 million Italian tourists. In terms of local cooperation, currently 10 twinning relationships have been set up among localities of both sides. Currently, about 50,000 Vietnamese people are living and working in Italy.

Activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam-Italy diplomatic ties and 10 years of the Vietnam-Italy strategic partnership in 2023 have helped strengthen the mutual understanding between the two peoples, heading to the future with greater cooperation opportunities.