German President arrives in Hanoi, begins State visit to Vietnam

On the morning of January 23, President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender arrived in Hanoi, beginning a two-day State visit to Vietnam on January 23-24 at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong and his wife.

Welcoming the delegation at Noi Bai International Airport were Head of the Office of the President Le Khanh Hai, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen; Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu; Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu ​​Quang Minh; Director of the Department of State Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Viet Dung; and a number of officials from the Office of the President, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Accompanying German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife on their visit to Vietnam were Ms. Dörte Dinger, State Secretary, Chief of the Presidential Office; Mr. Hubertus Heil, Member of Parliament, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs; Mr. Tobias Lindner, Member of Parliament, State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry; Mr. Michael Kellner, Member of Parliament, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection; Mr. Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development; Ms. Dorothee Bär, Member of Parliament, Deputy Head of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Delegation, in charge of family and cultural affairs; Mr. Guido Hildner, German Ambassador to Vietnam; Mr. Wolfgang Silbermann, Ambassador, Head of the Foreign Policy Department; Ms. Cerstin Gammelin, Spokesperson of the President; and a number of officials from the German Presidential Office, representatives of a number of German enterprises.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has visited Vietnam twice (March 2008 as Foreign Minister and October 2016 as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister). He has made many contributions to the relationship between the two countries and is interested in the development and integration of the Vietnamese community in Germany.

The State visit to Vietnam by President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife takes place in the context of bilateral relations continuing to deepen and have substantial developments in many fields.

Even more meaningful, this is President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's first foreign visit in 2024 and the first high-level delegation exchange between the two countries in the new year 2024 - a pivotal year towards the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025.

This is also the second visit of a German President to Vietnam in the history of relations between the two countries since Germany's reunification.

17 years ago, German Federal President Horst Kohler visited Vietnam in May 2007.

According to the program, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will meet with Vietnam's top leaders to discuss measures to further promote bilateral cooperation in many fields and issues of mutual concern in the international arena.

A key content of the visit is economic and trade cooperation.

Accompanying President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is a large German business delegation operating in many different industries.

It is expected that a dialogue between the business delegation accompanying the President and German businesses and German business organizations doing business in Vietnam will be held.

The President and his delegation will visit and survey a number of German projects in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring areas in recent times.

The delegation will have a number of cultural and people-to-people diplomacy activities within the framework of the visit.