Belarusian PM Roman Golovchenko concludes Vietnam trip

Belarusian PM Roman Golovchenko concludes his trip to Vietnam today. This marks the first trip by a Belarusian leader to Vietnam since 2020.

This visit saw the upgrading of the 2004 agreement on friendship and co-operation. Both sides will continue to facilitate economic and trade development, while also co-operating in investment projects, tourist exchanges and educational training. Having established diplomatic ties in 1992, both sides have consistently maintained robust relations in recent years. They have established bilateral ties advancing defence, economic and people-to-people exchanges.

Ultimately, by deepening its comprehensive co-operation with Hanoi, Minsk aims to gradually expand its economic and diplomatic footprint within Southeast Asia. It has been vocal about the strategic significance of the region in today’s global economy and ultimately views co-operation with Hanoi as a gateway to establishing and expanding diplomatic, economic and trade ties with other ASEAN member states. The latter being crucial for Minsk to not only curry diplomatic favours within the ‘non-aligned’ ASEAN states, especially within the backdrop of the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict, but also to gradually offset the economic blow from the US and EU imposed sanctions. Therefore, expect Belarus to expand on its diplomatic ties with other ASEAN states in the upcoming months.