During their meeting in Hanoi on May 29, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok, who was on an official visit to Vietnam from May 27-29, reached an agreement that the two countries will double effort to soon raise the two-way trade to $2 billion.

The Vietnamese PM was quoted by the Government News as underlining the significance of the Hungarian President’s visit, noting that it holds special importance as the two countries are celebrating the 75th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations (1950 – 2025), and Vietnam is marking the 80th anniversary of its National Day.

The two leaders agreed to continue to effectively implement the agreements between the two countries, promote cooperation in traditional areas such as trade - investment, science - technology, education - training, national defense - security, medicine - pharmacy, culture - tourism and people-to-people exchange.

They also pledged to expand collaboration to areas where both sides have strengths and needs such as digital transformation, artificial intelligence, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and labor.

PM Chinh briefed the guest on Vietnam's socio-economic achievements, noting that the country's GDP hit $473 billion in 2024, with per capita income approaching the world's upper-middle-income threshold, and its happiness index rising by 11 places in 2024 and a further eight places this year.

In reply, President Sulyok said that Vietnam remains one of Hungary's most important partners in ASEAN, voicing his support for PM Chinh’s proposal on key measures to deepen bilateral ties.

The Hungarian President also pledged to call on other European Union (EU) countries to soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and urge the European Commission (EC) to soon remove the "yellow card" against Viet Nam's seafood exports.