Vietnamese State President Truong Tan Sang and his wife left Hanoi for Germany on Tuesday morning for a three-day visit that aims to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.

This is the first visit of a Vietnamese head of state to Germany since the European country was reunified in 1990.

The visit is paid at the invitation of German President Joachim Gauck on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.

The two countries have beefed up mutual trust and understanding through the exchange of high-level delegations and various cooperative mechanisms over recent years, according to the Vietnam Government Portal (VGP).

In 2011, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his German counterpart signed a declaration to establish the strategic partnership, setting out measures to foster bilateral ties, the VGP said.

The two countries have maintained close cooperation at multilateral and international forums, according to the VGP.

Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, has offered Vietnam around US$2 billion in official development assistance (ODA) since 1990, making it one of the biggest providers of ODA to the Southeast Asian nation, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Currently, Germany is one of Vietnam’s top trade partners in Europe, accounting for 19 percent of its total trade with the European Union.

Germany considers Vietnam one of three markets with the most potential in Asia, after China and India.

Two-way trade between Germany and Vietnam reached $7.9 billion in 2014 and $6.66 billion in the first nine months of this year. 

By the end of September 2015, German investors had developed 261 projects in Vietnam with a total registered investment of $1.413 billion, ranking it 22^nd on the list of foreign investors in the country.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese businesses have invested $92 million in 17 projects in Germany.

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