Summary: Body
Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna met Vietnam’s Prime Minister Le Minh Hung in Hanoi on Wednesday, describing the talks as an effort to deepen cooperation with Vietnam in trade, technology and digital transformation.
Tsahkna said Estonia’s goal was to work more closely with Vietnam as their bilateral relationship has expanded in recent years, including through agreements on digital cooperation signed in 2025. He framed Estonia’s interest in Vietnam as both economic and technical, emphasizing Estonia’s role in digital services and e-governance innovation.
In discussing what Estonia could offer, Tsahkna said cooperation on digitizing public services could help Vietnam reduce bureaucracy, improve transparency and lower costs. He said, in a comment to The Associated Press in Hanoi, that “It is much more quicker for citizens to be part of public sector services,” and added that Vietnam had proposed an education cooperation agreement.
Vietnam’s prime minister raised trade and investment priorities during the meeting, state media reported. Hung asked Estonia to urge the European Union to ratify an Investment Protection Agreement, and to support efforts to lift the European Commission’s “yellow card” that restricts imports of Vietnamese seafood exports for illegal fishing.
Tsahkna said the two sides see each other as complementary partners, with Estonia describing itself as a potential gateway for Vietnamese businesses to Europe and Vietnam offering Estonia a larger market and a foothold in Southeast Asia. “For us, Vietnam is one of the priority countries in the region,” Tsahkna said.
The meeting also touched on wider geopolitical issues. Tsahkna said the talks in Vietnam were an opportunity to convey Europe’s view of why it sees Russia as an “existential threat.”
Hanoi and Moscow have had diplomatic relations since 1950, and Vietnam has maintained a neutral stance regarding the war in Ukraine, advocating peace while avoiding direct criticism of Russia, according to the report. Tsahkna said Estonia’s outreach to Vietnam and Southeast Asia reflects geopolitical pressure and economic opportunity, including European and tariff tensions, as U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized European defense spending.
In the officials’ descriptions, the discussions left room for further cooperation beyond immediate economic ties, including continued work on digitalization and related agreements with an education component proposed by Vietnam.