Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was in Moscow and [held a meeting]( http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/79410) with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prime Minister Pham sent greetings from Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam and extended an invitation to President Putin to visit Vietnam. He also commented on the important role of Russia in the world today. “The Russian Federation now plays a very important role, and its place in the international system and on the global agenda is becoming increasingly significant by the day. We can say with pride that Russia is growing stronger amid the current complex international situation. Comrade President, I wish to congratulate you and everyone, the entire Russian Federation on this.”
During the course of the visit the two sides signed an agreement for Russia to build Vietnam’s first nuclear reactor. Plans for such a reactor had been discussed earlier but had been put off because of financial costs. Russia now has become the major exporter of nuclear power and nuclear power plants in the world with high quality guaranteed. Presidential Spokesman Dmitrii Peskov characterized this as a “breakthrough decision” on the part of Vietnam, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin noted that the project would increase cooperation in a number of related areas, including high-technologies and fundamental and applied scientific research.
