Spokeswoman reiterates top priority given to safety of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine
At the regular press briefing of the Ministryof Foreign Affairs held on March 17, Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang reaffirmed that ensuring security and safety for the lives and assets of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine is the top priority of the Party, State, and Government of Vietnam.
According to Le Thi Thu Hang, when the Ukraine situation recorded tense developments, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 201/CD-TTg, dated February 26, 2022, on the protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal entities, and some issues needing attention in the face of the Ukraine situation.
Recently, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son has continually held phone talks with his counterparts of Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, sent a letter to the Foreign Minister of Poland, and received the relevant countries’ ambassadors to Vietnam, asking for their assistance in guaranteeing maximum security and safety for Vietnamese citizens and their families and to create conditions for repatriation flights, according to Hang.
Amid extremely fast and complex developments of the situation in Ukraine, Vietnam’s ministries, sectors, and representative bodies in related countries have exerted all-out efforts to promptly arrange repatriation flights for Vietnamese people and their families, and help them deal with issues emerging and complete necessary procedures for bringing them home in a shortest period of time, with transparency ensured and priority given to the elderly, pregnant women, children, patients, and people with disabilities, the spokesperson said.
Hang informed that so far, five flights have been conducted, safely repatriating about 1,400 Vietnamese people and their family members who wish to return to Vietnam.
Hang also said certain problems have arisen during the citizen protection process, such as some people changed their mind and chose to go in their own ways, or wanted to wait for the war to end to come back to Ukraine. Others lacked or lost necessary papers, or their papers were out of date, needing support from the representative agencies.
Vietnam’s representative bodies have made utmost efforts and worked closely with authorities and Vietnamese people’s associations in the host countries to address those problems, continually update information and swiftly handle emerging issues to quickly evacuate the expatriates from war zones, and safely bring them to Vietnam.
Efforts by domestic authorities, overseas representative bodies, airlines, and business sponsors have won over support and high evaluation from both the expatriates and people in Vietnam, Hang added.
Regarding the suspected cashew nut export scam to Italy, Hang has spoken about actions taken by the Government to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises in
On March 14, the Prime Minister had directed ministries and sectors to urgently coordinate with the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) to examine and clarify the reasons of the case with a view to taking measures to assist businesses and people involved, and ensure their interests.
Immediately after receiving Vinacas’ notice on the suspected scam, the Ministry of Foreign Affair (MoFA) directed the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy to contact owners of the ships transporting the cashew nuts. The embassy also sent officials to Italian cities of Genova and Napoli to verify the information.
The embassy sent a diplomatic note to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development, police, Ministry of Economy and Finance, and other competent agencies, requesting a quick investigation into the case and necessary measures taken to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese enterprises.
According to the spokesperson, the embassy and the Vietnamese Trade Office in Italy have talked to the involved Vietnamese businesses and the Vinacas to discuss specific solutions. They suggested the exporters contact the international economic court and the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre to ask for their intervention in stopping the delivery of goods to the suspicious buyers, hence minimising losses for the Vietnamese firms.
Hang said following the direction of the Prime Minister, the MoFA will continue to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to shed light into the case, actively support domestic enterprises in solving it, and ensure the maximum safety for transactions between Vietnamese and Italian enterprises in the time to come.
Vietnamese exporters are at risk of losing hundreds of millions of USD in the suspected cashew nut scam in which they have not received any payment as agreed for the shipment of 100 containers of cashew nuts to Italy.
