Azerbaijan and Vietnam have huge potential for both sides to develop co-operation in all spheres, particularly in the fields of energy, agriculture, tourism, education and culture, said the article of Azerbaijani Ambassador to Vietnam Anar Imanov, published on Viet Nam News website.
The article was published on the day of the 25th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy in Baku.
“Twenty-five years have passed since January 20, 1990, which went down in the history of the Azerbaijani people as the Bloody January tragedy,” said the article. “This history was written with the blood of the martyrs who sacrificed themselves in recognition of Azerbaijan’s independence.”
On October 18, 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration of Independence which was affirmed by a nationwide referendum in December 1991, when the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, according to the article.
After regaining its independence the Republic of Azerbaijan started building diplomatic relations with foreign countries including Vietnam, said the article. The diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Viet Nam were established on September 23, 1992, according to the article.
“In general, Azerbaijan and Vietnam share long-standing historical relations,” the article said. “The foundation of traditional and friendly relations between the two countries was laid by the President Ho Chi Minh’s visit to Azerbaijan in 1959 and Azerbaijani people’s national leader Heydar Aliyev’s visit to Viet Nam in 1983.”
During the Soviet period a lot of Vietnamese students got higher education degrees in Azerbaijan and today most of them are represented in the different state and governmental structures of Viet Nam, the ambassador said.
“Azerbaijan’s oil and gas specialists exchanged experience with their Vietnamese colleagues and actively participated in the development of Vietnam’s oil and gas industry,” the article said.
In the last two years relations between the two countries were boosted with the establishment of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Vietnam in 2013 and the state visit of Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, on May 18-19, 2014, the author said.
Trend/az