The agreement was made between Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong and Ambassador of Algeria to Viet Nam Chaib Sofiane during a working session on November 12 in Ha Noi.
Ambassador Sofiane affirmed the important role of culture in the relationship between Algeria and Viet Nam. He hoped that in the next two years the two countries would have closer cooperation and organise more practical activities in this field.
Ambassador Sofiane particularly wished to develop two sections of cinema and arts stronger as he believed they would positively contribute to push bilateral relations between the two countries.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong (right) receives the Ambassador of Algeria to Viet Nam Chaib Sofiane on November 12 in Ha Noi.
He also suggested Algeria and Viet Nam to hold online conferences to discuss about tourism.
Deputy Dong welcomed Ambassador Sofiane to the working session before he reviewed the achieved results of two countries in the related fields.
Accordingly, Viet Nam and Algeria signed a cooperation agreement in the field of culture and information (in 1996) and a cultural cooperation programme for the period 2016-18 (June 2015).
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Algerian Embassy coordinated to stage and perform the play "The Man in Rubber Sandals" by Algerian writer Kateb Yaccine on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Algeria, in 2023.
In 2024, MCST sent two movies on the topic of Dien Bien Phu and General Vo Nguyen Giap to the Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria and they were screened on Algerian National Television during the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory.
The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of tourism on the occasion of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's visit to Algeria in June, 2015.
Two years later, the two countries established a tourism cooperation monitoring agency for each side.
The sport field also marked the remarkable cooperation development between the two countries with a MoU signed during President Nguyen Minh Triet's visit to Algeria in April 2010.
Viet Nam always tried to maintain good relations with the African partner, regularly sending teams to take part in international tournaments and actively spreading Vietnamese traditional martial arts in Algeria. Notably, Vovinam, one of the most well-known Vietnamese martial arts which based on the principle of "hard and soft", was included in the African Games’ disciplines after many lobby efforts of Viet Nam and Algeria.
Viet Nam has sent many masters to Algeria to help local martial arts trainees practice Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao for many years.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong (third, right) and Ambassador of Algeria to Viet Nam Chaib Sofiane (third, left) pose for photo after their working session on November 12 in Ha Noi.
The Algerian Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao Federation was established on August 3, 2013, gathering about 15,000 Algerian martial artists of nearly 200 clubs in many provinces and cities nationwide.
On September 2, 2019, on the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19) and the Viet Nam’s National Day (September 2), Vietnamese Ambassador to Algeria Pham Quoc Tru awarded the "Medal for the cause of Culture, Sports and Tourism" to 14 Algerian people who made outstanding achievements in pushing the development of Vietnamese traditional martial arts in Algeria and some other African countries for many years.
Agreeing with Ambassador Sofiane on the need to promote cooperation in the fields of culture and tourism, Deputy Minister Dong suggested many ideas such as organising photo and art exhibitions, film weeks and art performances as activities in both countries.
He also highlighted the indispensable role of sports, which could be clearly seen through the strong development of Vovinam martial art in Algeria.
He said the two sides needed to strengthen cooperation in sports, especially maintaining and developing the movement of practicing traditional Vietnamese martial arts in Algeria. It was necessary to build close cooperation at the federation and association level among neighboring countries to promote the development of Vietnamese traditional martial arts in Africa in general.
Deputy Minister Dong also hoped that through cooperation in these fields, the two countries would make closer relations and Ambassador Sofiane’s helpful hands throughout his working term in Viet Nam would play very important role in this process.
Ambassador Sofiane highly agreed with Deputy Minister Dong’s proposals and said that the Embassy and himself would always accompany and support the MCST to implement these discussed and related activities.
Thanh Ha