Within the framework of the visit, President Thuong will attend an official welcome ceremony and hold talks with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen, meet with President of the Federal Council Claudia Arpa, and have working sessions with the Mayors of Vienna and Burgenland states, said Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria Nguyen Trung Kien. “The visit of President Vo Van Thuong to Austria is of great importance and significance because the visit will help further strengthen our bilateral relations,” said Austrian Ambassador to Vietnam Hans-Peter Glanzer. In 1972, when the war in Vietnam was not over, Austria was one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian nation. Over the past more than five decades, the bilateral relations have developed in many different fields. Austria is always among Vietnam’s top 10 trading partners in Europe while Vietnam is a leading trading partner of Austria in ASEAN, with two-way trade reaching 2.79 billion USD last year. The two countries have also stepped up their relations in other fields such as culture, education, and science and technology./.