Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Hanoi on Sunday, commencing his two-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The visit comes as the two countries are scheduled to celebrate the Vietnam Year in Russia and Russia Year in Vietnam during the 2019-20 period, the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on fundamental principles of Vietnam – Russia friendship in 2019 and the 70th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2020.

Medvedev's trip aims to continue stepping up bilateral ties across politics, economy-trade, national defense-security, science-technology, education-training, culture-tourism, and locality-to-locality exchange, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Vietnam and Russia signed a joint statement on strategic partnership in March 2001, followed by a July 2012 joint statement on further strengthening bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.

Vietnam – Russia political ties with high trust have been incessantly strengthened over the past years, with exchange of high-level visits creating a strong foundation to develop the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations.

Bilateral trade between Vietnam and Russia rose to US$3.55 billion last year, from $2.2 billion in 2015.

The Vietnam – Russia Business Council was set up to facilitate bilateral trade and investment. The two countries recognized each other as market economies in 2007.

Russia is Vietnam's 23rd-biggest foreign investor with 116 projects worth a total of $990 billion, mostly in oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, transportation, telecommunications, and aquaculture, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The Southeast Asian country currently has 22 investment projects collectively worth nearly $3 billion in Russia.

Russia remains among the top ten sources of foreign tourists in Vietnam, with last year's arrivals topping 570,000. 

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