Upon his arrival, Chairman Hung and his delegation laid a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh square.

He later met with the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy and representatives of the Vietnamese people community in Russia during which the top legislator stated that the Party and State always care about overseas Vietnamese in general and those living and working in Russia in particular.

He reiterated the homeland’s persistent goals of building the national unity and creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese abroad to stablise their lives and integrate into their host countries while contributing to national construction.

The overseas Vietnamese are informed about the visit’s objectives of deepening and concretising the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia, including the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Duma.

This year, the Vietnam National Assembly will focus on amending the 1992 Constitution and the Land Law and conducting votes of confidence on officials elected or approved by the National Assembly, he said.

Hung called on overseas Vietnamese and the Embassy’s staff to actively contribute their opinions to draft amendments to the 1992 Constitution, the Land Law and other important issues.

They were urged to contribute to boosting cooperation in investment, education-training, technology transfer, trade, culture and tourism between the two countries.

Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Xuan Son said the Vietnamese community has abided by Russia’s laws and always support the national construction at home.

Over the past years, the community has conducted many people-to-people exchanges, actively contributing to fostering the traditional ties between the two countries.

Later on the day, Hung made a fact-finding tour of the construction site of the Ha Noi-Moscow cultural, trade and hotel centre that manifests cooperation between the two capitals.

Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung’s visit to Russia made the headlines in Russia’s media, which extolled the strengthened traditional relationship and comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

News agencies including ITAR-TASS and Ria-Novosti, and national television channels and newspapers followed Hung’s activities on March 9-10.

ITAR-TASS printed an interview with the Vietnamese top legislator by its correspondent in Viet Nam Yuri Denisovich, stressing that Russia and Viet Nam have regularly exchanged delegations of various levels.

The agency mentioned the visit to Viet Nam by Chairwoman of the Federation Council (Upper House) of Russia’s Federal Assembly last November and a cooperation agreement inked, saying these marked a new development period between the two legislative bodies and contributed to enhancing and expanding the two countries’ cooperation.

Both ITAR-TASS and Ria-Novosti gave details on Chairman Hung’s activities in Saint Petersburg and his meetings with municipal executive and legislative leaders.

The Vietnamese delegation is scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, the agencies said.

They news agencies shared the view that the visit will significantly contribute to further strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as all-round cooperation between Viet Nam and Russia.