French City Celebrates Ties with Vietnam

Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang speaks at the event. Photo: VNA

A ceremony in celebration of the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties and 10 years of strategic partnership between Vietnam and France was held in Poitiers city on March 24, VNA reported.

At the invitation of Poitiers Mayor, Eleonore Moncond’huy, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang visited Poitiers, attended the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-France relations organised by the City Hall, and met with institutions of the city, the Nouvelle Aquitaine region and the city of Poitiers in the fields of education-training, culture, agricultural cooperation and the environment.

Presiding over the ceremony, Mayor of Poitiers Eléonore Moncond’huy spoke highly of the the twinning relationship between the French locality and Vietnam’s central city of Hue in particular, as well as the traditional cooperation between the two countries in general.

She called on partners of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, including Poitiers, to proactively renew existing relationships, and look for new cooperation fields such as energy transformation, digital transformation, and green and sustainable development.

Participants at the ceremony. Photo: VNA

Representing officials of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Pascal Duforestel highlighted the traditional twinning relationship between Vietnam’s Lao Cai province and Poitou-Charente (the old name of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region before 2016), which has been maintained and developed until now with cooperation projects in agriculture, French language teaching and tourism training.

He pledged that the regional authority will support twinning cooperation projects, and promote exchange and win-win cooperation.

He took the occasion to announce that a delegation of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region will attend the 12th Vietnam-France decentralised cooperation conference in mid-April in Hanoi.

Mayor of Poitiers Eléonore Moncond’huy and Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang watch the photos displayed at the event. Photo: VNA

For his part, Ambassador Dinh Toan Thang applauded the cooperation between Vietnamese localities and Poitiers city, Grand Poitiers urban cluster and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, considering it a model of local cooperation between Vietnam and France.

He called on local partners to continue cooperation and promote exchanges with Vietnamese provinces and cities.

During the celebration, the authority of Poitiers city introduced the project “Harmonie” performed by director Tristan Guerlotte and composer Malik in collaboration of Vietnamese singer Dong Lan.

This is the result of the collaboration and exchange of music and French language between students of Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School in Hue city and Lusignant School of Poitiers.

During the same visit, the ambassador met with Vietnamese students studying at universities in Poitiers, visited and encouraged them to strive for success in study and life.

At a working session within the visit. Photo: VNA

Within the framework of his two-day working visit to Poitiers, Ambassador Thang had meetings with representatives of agencies, organisations and institutions of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Poitiers city, during which they discussed cooperation opportunities as well as potential with Vietnam in the fields of environment, energy conversion, healthcare, and aviation; possibilities to promote trade, and enhance cooperation projects in vocational training and exchange of experience and skills.

Previously, on March 23, the embassy’s delegation also visited a production facility of Bonilait dairy firm in Poitiers, which has a business relationship with Vietnamese partners.