President Tran Dai Quang visits Vietnamese embassy in Egypt

Greeting the President, representatives from the Vietnamese community in Egypt expressed wish to continue receiving support from the Party and State, especially in opening Vietnamese language courses to keep the mother tongue alive in the community. President Quang informed the expatriates on Vietnam's situation and external policy. He noted that Egypt was one of the first Arabian countries to establish diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1963 and open the embassy in Hanoi in 1964, and the first Northern African country to recognise Vietnam as a market economy in November 2013. In September 2017, President Al-Sisi paid a State visit to Vietnam, which was the first high-level visit between the two countries. He said Vietnam and Egypt have good political ties, and they regularly share stances and support each other at the United Nations forums. The African country has expressed backing of Vietnam's candidacy as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure. Egypt is Vietnam's fifth largest trade partner in Africa with two-way trade hitting 346 million USD in 2017. The two countries aim to raise their trade to 1 billion USD in the near future. The leader asked Vietnamese agencies in Egypt to keep close track of the situation in Egypt and propose specific measures to strengthen all-around ties between the two nations. He committed all possible support to overseas Vietnamese to stabilise their lives, integrate into the host society and maintain cultural identities. President Tran Dai Quang and his spouse arrived in Luxor city on August 25 afternoon (local time), beginning his State visit to Egypt, the first visit by a head of the State of Vietnam since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1963.-VNA