On 15 May, Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang of Vietnam and Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan co-chaired the plenary session of the second meeting of the Vietnam-Armenia Intergovernmental Committee on Economic, Trade, and Scientific-Technical Cooperation in Armenia. 

This session is a significant step forward in deepening bilateral relations across multiple sectors.

This second session took place nine years after the inaugural meeting in 2017. Both sides recognised the session’s critical role in unlocking cooperation opportunities in trade, investment, economy, construction, healthcare, and other fields of mutual interest.

The Vietnamese delegation included representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Health, leaders from several units under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in Russia, concurrently accredited to Armenia. 

The Armenian delegation included the Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Vietnam, and representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy, Finance, High-Tech Industry, Health, Education, Science, Culture and Sports, and Internal Affairs.

Review of bilateral cooperation and trade growth

The session featured a review of bilateral cooperation activities in recent years. Political and diplomatic ties have steadily strengthened, with bilateral trade turnover increasing more than 50-fold between 2021 and 2025, from USD 11 million to USD 564 million.

The VN-EAEU FTA, signed in 2015 and effective since 2016, has been a major driver of trade cooperation between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, particularly Armenia.

Despite progress, both parties acknowledged that economic and trade cooperation remains below potential. Bilateral trade accounts for only 1.6% of Armenia’s total import-export turnover and 0.06% of Vietnam’s. Key challenges include limited mutual understanding of the business and high transportation and logistics costs.

Both sides view their relationship as gateways to broader markets: Armenia as a portal to the EAEU and neighbouring countries for Vietnam, and Vietnam as a gateway to ASEAN and other markets for Armenia.

Expanding cooperation into new sectors

Beyond traditional cooperation, the parties exchanged views on new areas of mutual interest, including industry, agriculture, transport, defence, science, information technology, healthcare, culture, sports, tourism, education, and training.

Notably, discussions included emerging fields aligned with global trends such as artificial intelligence and innovation, aimed at enhancing national competitiveness and integration into global supply chains. Expanding the cooperation scope is expected to boost economic scale and foster a more balanced trade relationship.

Proposed cooperation orientations

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang proposed aligning cooperation by leveraging each country’s strengths and addressing mutual needs. This focuses on promoting exchanges of delegations at all levels to strengthen connectivity and support complementary business sectors. 

This also includes coordinating to effectively implement the VN-EAEU FTA and resolve implementation challenges to maximise benefits, facilitating market access for key agricultural products, and intensifying cultural and artistic activities during major national celebrations to strengthen people-to-people ties.

Both countries would also work on enhancing cooperation in science and technology, particularly in information technology, innovation, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence. Vietnam expressed interest in establishing innovation technology centres modelled after Armenia’s TUMO Centre for Creative Technologies.

Additionally, this includes advancing education and training cooperation, including implementing the 2019 education cooperation agreement, considering mutual diploma recognition, and strengthening exchanges of lecturers and students.

On 14 May, prior to the plenary session, Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang held working sessions with Armenian officials, including Babken Tunyan, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs of the Armenian National Assembly, and Arman Khojoyan, Permanent Deputy Minister of Economy.

Vietnam and Armenia have noted the positive development of their relations since establishing diplomatic ties in 1992.

High-level visits, including Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s 2019 visit to Vietnam, Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan’s 2024 visit, and Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man’s 2025 visit to Armenia, show mutual commitment to elevating bilateral relations.