MOSCOW/HANOI (Sputnik) – Russia and Vietnam intend to develop mutual partnerships for military and technical cooperation, as well as in the areas of trade and energy, Russia’s Deputy Security Council Secretary Evgeny Lukyanov said Wednesday.
The Council's chief, Nikolai Patrushev, held expert consultations on regional and international security as part of his March 15-16 working visit to Vietnam. The sides discussed various areas of Russian-Vietnamese cooperation, including on defense and trade.
"As for military-technical cooperation, it is well-established. The Vietnamese side gave it a positive assessment, this collaboration will continue," Lukyanov told RIA Novosti.
"At the latest talks, the position of increasing trade between Russia and Vietnam to $10 billion by 2020 was voiced as a realistic goal," he said, adding that year-on-year mutual turnover grew by several percentage points.
Lukyanov point to oil production and oilfield development as current areas of successful bilateral cooperation, and added that the Russian-Vietnamese partnership could benefit from collaborating in high-tech projects.