Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 relationship are largely based on mutual trade and international political cooperation opportunities between the 2 countries. Pakistan maintains an embassy in Hanoi

Hanoi

Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...

, and Vietnam has an embassy in Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

.

During the 2010 Pakistan floods

2010 Pakistan floods

The 2010 Pakistan floods began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan and affected the Indus River basin. Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater, approximately...

 Vietnam provided aid worth US$50,000 to the government of Pakistan.

Trade links

Trade between the two countries increased from US$10 million in 1999 to US$150 million in 2008. Pakistan is Vietnam largest tea importer. Pakistan exports to Vietnam consist of cotton, leather and pharmaceutical product, and include potential for export of motorcycles, plastic products and surgical instruments and investment in coal mining and aquaculture. Meanwhile Vietnam has potential to export rubber, rubber products and machinery to Pakistan.

Political cooperation

In May 2001 General Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

, paid an official visit to Vietnam. In March 2004, President Tran Duc Luong, at the invitation of President Pervez Musharraf, also visited Pakistan.
Pakistan considers Vietnam an important diplomatic partner, because of Vietnam full membership of ASEAN, and Vietnam support of Pakistan's bid to be a full dialogue partner of ASEAN. Therefore under the Pakistan "East Asia Vision Strategy" foreign policy, Vietnam has potential to promote Pakistan mutual interest in ASEAN, whereas Pakistan supports Vietnam bid for non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.
Vietnam support for Pakistan in 2011 for EU duty waiver for its textile products has also been seen as very critical by Pakistani diplomats.