On October 7, 2024, during his official visit to France, General Secretary and President To Lam and President Emmanuel Macron agreed to announce the upgrading of relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. (Photo: QT)

Surely 2024 will be an extremely busy year for our Embassy as well as for the Ambassador personally. Looking back on that meaningful year, what are your thoughts, and what are the most impressive stories that made a "complete" Vietnam-France year in your personal opinion?

Indeed, 2024 is an extremely exciting and meaningful year in our foreign affairs work in the area. Many important events have taken place, marking new steps forward in cooperation between Vietnam and France. I can affirm that 2024 is a "complete" year for the relationship between the two countries. "Complete" here is not only about the number of activities, but also about the quality, significance and scale of the events.

Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang. (Source: VNA)

The highlight and coverage is the official visit to France by General Secretary and President To Lam (October 2024). The visit is a combination of bilateral and multilateral when General Secretary and President To Lam is a high-ranking leader of Vietnam attending a Francophone Summit, at the same time bringing new vitality to the Vietnam-France bilateral relationship, affirming political determination at the highest level, marking the strong and comprehensive development of Vietnam-France relations and also a highlight towards further strengthening Vietnam's relations with the region.

Upgrading the Vietnam-France relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership makes France the first EU country to have the highest level of cooperation framework with Vietnam, and Vietnam becomes the first ASEAN country and the third country in the world with which France has established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

An event that cannot be ignored is the first visit to Vietnam by the French Minister of the Army and also the first time France accepted an invitation to directly attend the Dien Bien Phu Victory Celebration Ceremony on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of this resounding victory of the Vietnamese army and people.

This visit has profound historical significance, demonstrating the spirit of reconciliation, cooperation and looking towards the future, while contributing to emphasizing the current important connection between the two countries and peoples, strengthening political trust, and opening up new prospects for defense cooperation.

The third event that I would also like to emphasize is the inauguration ceremony of the memorial plaque of President Ho Chi Minh in the city of Sainte-Adresse, in the Northwest of France, where he stayed during the years 1911-1912. The ceremony was held on October 6, 2024, during the official visit to France by General Secretary and President To Lam.

With this new memorial plaque, we have a series of places honoring President Ho Chi Minh stretching across France, from the North (Sainte-Adresse) to the South (Marseille) through the French capital region (Montreuil) alongside many other marks of his life and activities in France.

As far as I know, up to now, out of the total of 6 memorial plaques of President Ho Chi Minh abroad (Singapore, India, England, Slovakia, France and Brazil), France is the only country with 2 cities erecting plaques honoring Uncle Ho. These imprints of President Ho Chi Minh in France are symbols of cooperation, peace, friendship, and at the same time express the deep affection of the French people for President Ho Chi Minh and the cause of the Vietnamese people.

General Secretary and President To Lam and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation laid flowers at the Uncle Ho Statue in the Ho Chi Minh Memorial Area - where there is a statue of President Ho Chi Minh and Ho Chi Minh Space in Montreuil city, France on October 6. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

Regarding the visit of General Secretary and President To Lam to France in October 2024, is there any "untold story" that the Ambassador can share before this historic milestone?

During the bilateral visit to France, I had the opportunity to accompany and witness the warm welcome of high-ranking French leaders for General Secretary and President To Lam.

General Secretary and President To Lam is the only foreign high-ranking leader to be officially welcomed by France, the highest level of reception for foreign high-ranking leaders attending the 19th Francophone Summit in France.

France has had special diplomatic protocols and receptions, more solemn than usual, for the visit of General Secretary and President To Lam.

Within the framework of the 19th Francophone Summit, the General Secretary and President was the only head of state invited by French President Macron, in his capacity as host, to speak at the session "For a renewed multilateralism" from the beginning.

These special gestures affirm Vietnam's increasingly important position in the international arena and the special respect that France has for its cooperative relations with Vietnam and personally with General Secretary and President To Lam.

Activities within the framework of General Secretary and President To Lam's visit to France were organized in a diverse and rich manner, including multilateral and bilateral activities in many fields, from politics, economics to culture, people-to-people exchanges, at many levels from central to local, clearly demonstrating the comprehensive and extensive relationship with France, a country with many historical, cultural and cooperative elements associated with Vietnam.

In such consecutive activities, it is necessary to choose highlights and prepare very carefully, closely time each activity to be able to realize our programs during the visit as well as be suitable to the scale of the relationships and stories raised.

It is also normal to do when there is a high-level visit, but it must be said that from multilateral French language to bilateral with France, we have conducted dozens of contact activities, prepared campaigns, discussed and negotiated in advance, sometimes several months in advance, and were still nervous until the last minute when the results were actually as expected.

Here, I would also like to emphasize the very determined and drastic leadership and direction of General Secretary and President To Lam. Right after arriving in Paris, upon returning to the hotel and hearing the report on the program in France, General Secretary and President To Lam immediately gave his opinion that "no activity must be missed!".

That was truly a heartfelt directive for the trip's activities when we all knew that France was the final leg of a long trip and also the trip right after many very important international visits by the General Secretary and President.

I would like to sincerely thank General Secretary To Lam for his close attention to foreign affairs, and also thank the leaders and functional units of many ministries, departments and branches for accompanying and coordinating to create the success of the visit. It truly reflects our new mindset in the field of foreign affairs to contribute to the country's rise in the era of the Vietnamese people's rise.

Program 70 years of Dien Bien Phu Victory: Historical and memory exchange in France in April 2024 (Photo: QT)

Dear Ambassador, in 2024, the visit of the French Minister of the Army to Vietnam on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory certainly has many messages to convey. How does the Ambassador assess those messages and the readiness of the two countries for the new future?

As mentioned above, the visit to Vietnam by the French Minister of the Army on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory is a meaningful event, marking a new step forward in the relationship between Vietnam and France.

This is not the first time a French politician or leader has visited Dien Bien Phu. French President Francois Mitterrand in 1993 and French Prime Minister Esdouard Philippe in 2018 also visited Dien Bien Phu, but this is the first time a French politician or leader has accepted an invitation to attend Vietnam's Dien Bien Phu Victory Celebration.

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The attendance of the French Minister of the Army, the Secretary of State in charge of Veterans and Memory, and three French veterans at the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory demonstrates a spirit of respect for history, appreciation and a desire to move further towards future cooperation. It must be said that we also demonstrated a great goodwill, openness, mutual respect and thoughtful arrangements by the Ministry of National Defense, the People's Committee of Dien Bien province and our National Organizing Committee for these special guests from France.

The visit also highlighted the importance of cooperation in sharing historical memories and overcoming the consequences of war between the two countries through practical and effective cooperation projects. The inauguration of the historical memory road project connecting historical relics of the battle and the handover ceremony of the Muong Thanh bridge lighting system to Dien Bien province contributed to the humane historical education for future generations. The Letter of Intent on enhancing Vietnam-France defense cooperation signed during this visit demonstrated the political determination of both countries in enhancing dialogue and defense cooperation, contributing to security and stability in the region and the world.

It can be said that the visit of the French Minister of the Army and the welcome of Vietnam are strong gestures, demonstrating the spirit and desire of both countries to build a better future of cooperation on the basis of mutual respect. The visit left deep impressions and both sides clearly recognized the benefits that the cooperative relationship brings. I believe that, with the foundations that have been built and the efforts of both sides in all areas of cooperation, including defense, the comprehensive strategic partnership will increasingly develop, bringing practical benefits to the two countries.

What are the important highlights of the commitments in the Joint Statement upgrading Vietnam-France relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and what are the Ambassador's expectations for the prospects of realizing those commitments in the coming time?

The upgrading of relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a historic milestone, opening a new chapter in the cooperative relationship between Vietnam and France. It is also an important step in the period of strongly implementing our active foreign policy strategy to meet the requirements of the new situation and the current development of the country.

The Joint Statement upgrading Vietnam-France relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership identifies five main pillars in the cooperative relationship in the coming time, in line with our priorities with important, leading partners. First, deepening political-diplomatic cooperation and regional and international issues. Second, strengthening defense-security cooperation. Third, promoting economic, trade-investment and innovation cooperation. Fourth, strengthening cooperation for sustainable development. Fifth, continuing to promote people-to-people exchange.

I am very optimistic about the prospects for realizing the commitments in the Joint Statement. Both Vietnam and France have demonstrated the highest political determination to bring the Partnership to a new level.

To achieve this goal, the two sides need to focus on developing specific action plans with clear targets and implementation time frames for all levels of diverse cooperation, which are the strengths of the bilateral relationship; increase delegation exchanges at all levels while making the most of existing bilateral cooperation/dialogue mechanisms such as political consultations, 2+2 strategic dialogues, defense strategic dialogues, high-level economic dialogues, etc.; promote strong implementation and further expansion of cooperation projects in the fields of energy, transport infrastructure, science, technology and innovation; closely coordinate and support each other in multilateral forums such as the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Ocean in June 2025, the 20th Francophonie Summit in 2026, etc.; enhance cooperation and exchange, cultural, artistic and sports exchanges to increase understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries.

I believe that, with the joint efforts of both sides, we will soon see concrete results from the implementation of this Joint Statement. On the occasion of the New Year, I would like to wish our partners many successful new connections in 2025 as well as in the years to come.