Viet Nam and France officially established diplomatic relations at Ambassadorial level on April 12, 1973.

I/ Political relations

The political relations between Viet Nam and France have experienced fruitful developments through regular exchange of visits by delegations at all levels. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Le Kha Phieu visited France in May 2005; State President Tran Duc Luong in 2002; General Secretary of the CPV Nong Duc Manh in June 2005; while President J. Chirac and President of the Senate Poncelet visited Vietnam in September 2004 and June 2005, respectively.

Alongside the exchange of visits by Party, State, Government and National Assembly leaders of the two countries, the French high-ranking leaders have affirmed to bolster the multi-faceted relations with Viet Nam, especially in the fields of economics, culture and education. France assisted Viet Nam to successfully hold the ASEM V in Hanoi in 2004, contributing to enhancing dialogues between Vietnam and the EU, supporting Vietnam's bid to join the World Trade Organization and Viet Nam’s candidacy for UN Security Council non-permanent membership in the 2008-2009 term.

The two countries agree to build and fortify their relationship under the motto of “traditional friendship, long-term, trusting and comprehensive cooperation in the 21st century”. Bilateral strategic and security dialogues have been established and come into effect. On the occasion of General Secretary Nong Duc Manh’s visit to France, the two sides agreed to establish a high-level consultancy council for economic cooperation based on the Viet Nam-France Economic and Financial Forum. The first meeting of the council was held in Paris in September 2006 and the second one was held in Autumn 2007.

II. Economic relations

1. Official development assistance

Viet Nam is one of a few countries to receive France’s three financial assistance channels: official development assistance (ODA), preferential loans from the French Development Agency (AFD), and soft loans from the Priority Solidarity Fund (FSP). Viet Nam is now the seventh largest recipient of French ODA. So far, Vietnam has been granted Euro 1.2 billion through more than 210 projects.

The Viet Nam-France cooperation has been focusing on four fields, namely legal and political reform assistance, education system modernization and research programme assistance, economic restructure assistance, and poverty reduction and social welfare improvement by participation in community healthcare.

2. Trade relations

In recent years, the two-way trade revenue has increased 10-15 per cent a year, making France one of Viet Nam’s top trading partners in Western Europe. In 2005, Viet Nam earned over Euro 1 billion from exports to France for the first time in the total of Euro 1.5 billion bilateral trade turnover. In 2006, the bilateral trade turnover grew by 10 per cent, reaching Euro 1.6 billion.

3. Direct investment

France ranks first among European countries and ranks ninth out of 77 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam. As of May 2007, France invested US$2.25 billion in 179 effective projects in Viet Nam. Of the sum, more than 50% of the capital was already disbursed, higher than the average FDI disbursement ratio of 40 per cent in the country. France-invested projects mainly focus on industrial fields, transportation and telecommunications.

III. Cultural and scientific - technological cooperation

France has annually provided Viet Nam with around Euro 10 million for foreign language teaching, administrative reform, law building, financial and banking management, and post-graduate training in economic management and aviation law.

Cooperation in the field of training technical staffs and researchers: Center for International Cooperation and Agriculture Development Research (CIRAD) and Institute for Research and Development (IRD) were authorized to establish their representative offices in Viet Nam.

France also provided financial assistance for and took part in the Hue Festival in 2000, 2002, and 2004. The country donated 400,000 euros to help organize the Hue Festival 2004.
 
So far, 52 regions, cities and communities of France have set up relations with 54 cities and provinces of Viet Nam. The sixth conference on cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities was held in Viet Nam for the first time in June 2005. The seventh one was held in France in September 2007.
    
IV. Other cooperation spheres

- Francophone Community: Being members of Francophone Community, both countries show their common interest in this Community, especially in developing French language in Viet Nam, language training and Parliament’s activities.

- Tripartite cooperation between Viet Nam, France and/or other charities and some African countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal in the fields of agriculture and health care have yielded excellent results and are supported by many other countries.

(December 2007)