Peace is in our common interest

“The only response to global problems is a human-centric approach”, emphasized Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister, Socialist Republic of Vietnam in his speech delivered at the Ludovika – University of Public Service on Friday, 19 January, in Budapest.

In welcoming the newly concluded agreements on tertiary education cooperation among Hungarian and Vietnamese universities, the Vietnamese head of government said that the young people can promote and further build scientific cooperation on the basis of partnership established through their mutual inspiration; and this is possible indeed even between countries far away from each other like Vietnam and Hungary. Pham Minh Chinh encouraged the young to become a true engine of initiatives and innovations, because anything can happen in today’s world; thus, preparedness and good adaptability are fundamentally important. He noted that he marvels at the accomplishments of Hungarian science and technology, the new Hungarian Nobel Prize laureates as well as such masterworks as, for example, the building of the Hungarian Parliament.

He also pointed out that his country considers Hungary its most important partner in the Central European region, based on the decades-long friendship of the two countries built on optimism. He went on saying thanks to Hungary for having donated vaccines in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, thereby saving the lives of many people in Vietnam, a country in trouble at the time.

While analyzing the global problems of the world, he said that working toward peace is the most important task, because – as he noted – after winning independence, Vietnamese people had to fight against new colonization efforts for four decades, during which they made huge sacrifices in defending their independence. He added that despite the lot of suffering and hardship, the people of Vietnam look optimistically to the future, as they were able to join forces in trouble and even today, the Vietnamese government is shaping its policy through involving people and keeping social justice in mind. He highlighted that over the past few years, hundreds of billions of dollars had been invested as working capital in Vietnam, and their annual rate of growth of GDP reached 8 per cent in 2022. He said that in his opinion, today’s biggest problems in Asia are the population decline and the aging population in its countries. Therefore, in the interest of the people’s calm and prosperity, he considers it important for leaders to negotiate with each other and defuse the existing tension rather than isolating themselves.

Following Pham Minh Chinh’s speech, in the presence of Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the representatives of the involved Hungarian and Vietnamese universities exchanged with each other the documents of the new agreements in the framework of a ceremony. The ten new agreements make it possible to organize student exchange programs, scientific and research cooperation as well as the exchange of experiences and conferences in fields such as agriculture, economy, medicine, architecture, engineering and technological research, sustainable development and climate research, pharmacology, as well as international relations.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Rector Gergely Deli, Debrecen University Rector Zoltán Szilvássy at the exchange of the documents of cooperation agreements among Hungarian and Vietnamese universities at the Ludovika – University of Public Service on 19 January.