Ambassador Bertrand Lortholary expressed his pleasure to visit VNU – the leading university in Vietnam as well as stressed that France would willingly cooperate and support VNU in training, research and student support.

According to VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn, VNU has built and maintained cooperation with various French universities as well as participated in a number of multilateral cooperation schemes within Francophone, Francophone University Association (AUF), etc. Especially, in the past September, French President Francois Hollande paid a visit to VNU and delivered a speech on “Common future of France and Vietnam” during his State visit to Vietnam. Also on the occasion of French President Francois Hollande’s visit, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn and Ecole Polytechnique President Yves Demay signed an agreement to boost the two universities’ partnership.

To further strengthen and develop the partnership with French partners, VNU President requested Ambassador Bertrand Lortholary to keep on supporting and cooperating with Vietnam in general and VNU in particular through discussing ways to support VNU International Francophone Institute with AUF; assisting VNU in exploiting the documents on Vietnam stored by the French National Archives for building a center of Vietnamese Studies documents; and enhancing the cooperation between VNU and Ecole Polytechnique, especially in technology and scholar exchange.

French Ambassador Bertrand Lortholary said that he would discuss support for VNU International Francophone Institute with AUF and propose VNU exploiting the documents on Vietnam stored by the French National Archives for relevant authorities’ consideration. French Ambassador and VNU President also agreed to consider the launching of a VNU Francophone Space project.