Putin, Medvedev to discuss oil and gas projects with Vietnam’s ruling party chief

 President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday are expected to meet in Sochi with the Secretary General of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nguen Phu Trong, the Kremlin press service said.
Putin’s talks with Nguen will concentrate on large joint projects in the oil and gas sector, in the nuclear power industry and industrial cooperation, as well as on a buildup of cultural and humanitarian contacts.
“The sides will take a close look at the prospects for further comprehensive partnership in the light of agreements that Russia and Vietnam reached during Putin’s official visit to Hanoi in November 2013,” a spokesman for the Kremlin press service said. “The two leaders will also examine pressing regional issues.”
The government’s press service said at the same time that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev hopes to discuss bilateral economic relations and a free trade zone agreement between the countries of the Eurasian Customs Union (Armenia, Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan) and Vietnam.
“One more item to come under consideration is a buildup of interparty contacts between the United Russia party and the Communist Party of Vietnam,” the press service said.
On the eve of the visit, Nguen Phu Trong said in an interview with TASS that his exchanges of opinion with Russian leaders would target well-specified measures and steps that are necessary for the consolidation and further growth of partnership between Vietnam and Russia in all the existing areas of cooperation.
“My visit to Russia will take place on the background of progress of Vietnamese-Russian relations and all-embracing strategic partnership,” he said. “President Putin, other Russian leaders and I will assess development of this relationship in recent months and will look, among other things, at the implementation of bilateral agreements at top level and the pace of implementation of large-scale projects.”
Specifically, the talks will focus on investment, energy, production of oil and gas, atomic energy, defense, and security.
At the same time, Nguyen said he hopes to discuss cooperation at the level of regions, the situation with the populous Vietnamese community in Russia and the expansion of people’s diplomacy.
Apart from a purely bilateral agenda, Putin and Nguyev also hope to consider a possible coordination of steps in the international arena.
“Vietnam is conducting an independent multi-vector foreign policy based on self-determination, aspirations for peace, cooperation, development, and international integration,” Nguyen said.