Vietnamese president to attend Victory Day celebration in Russia

HANOI -- Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang will visit Russia to attend the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA reported on Tuesday.

Sang's visit to Russia will run from Thursday to Sunday.

Russia celebrates Victory Day on May 9 every year to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in "the Great Patriotic War", Russian term for World War II. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory.

Vietnam-Russia diplomatic ties dated back to 1950. The two countries turned their relations to strategic partnership in 2001 and upgraded it into comprehensive strategic partnership in 2012.

Currently, Russia ranks the 17th out of 101 countries and regions having investment in Vietnam with 106 projects worth nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars. Russian projects in Vietnam mainly focus on mining, processing-manufacturing industry, banking, telecommunication, among others.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has invested some 2.47 billion U.S. dollars in 19 projects in Russia, with a focus on oil and gas, as well as construction of a trade center in Russian capital Moscow.

There are some 60,000-80,000 Vietnamese living in Russia.

At the invitation of Czech President Milos Zeman and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Sang will also pay visits to Czech Republic on May 10-13 and Azerbaijan on May 13-15, respectively.

Sang's tours to Czech Republic and Azerbaijan aim to boost friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with these countries, exchange views with their leaders on each other's socio-economic situation as well as experience in sustainable economic development.

The president's visit will also look to seek measures to deepen all-round cooperation as well as urge for favorable conditions for Vietnamese communities in these countries, according to VNA.