France and Vietnam Increase Trade Cooperation after President Macron Visit
Following the visit of President Emmanuel Macron to Hanoi earlier this week, France and Vietnam have inked trade deals worth over USD 10 billion. The visit, the first from a French head of state in almost a decade, saw the two countries sign deals focused on aviation, defence, and healthcare, with media reports of greater cooperation in rail and maritime transport, nuclear power, and vaccines.
Headline deals agreed between the two countries include the purchase of 20 Airbus A330-900 aircraft, worth an estimated USD 7 billion, with around 30 such trade agreements signed in total. It comes after the bilateral relationship between France and Vietnam was upgraded in 2024 to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, the highest level possible in Vietnam. No other European nation holds this diplomatic status in Vietnam.
The visit also builds on strong bilateral trade between France and Vietnam. France is one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam, with USD 3.96 billion in registered foreign capital as of April 2025. Meanwhile, Vietnam is France’s second-largest trade partner in ASEAN (after Singapore) with bilateral trade reaching USD 5.4 billion in 2024, an increase of 12.9 per cent on 2023.
France is also taking a lead in Vietnam’s infrastructure development. The Hanoi urban metro, for instance, has been a highlight of French-Vietnamese cooperation since it opened in 2024. This cooperation now looks set to deepen further, with the announcement of a USD 600 million joint investment in a deepwater container terminal in northern Vietnam between Saigon Newport and CMA CGM.
Commenting during his visit to Hanoi, President Macron said:
“It is truly a new page being written between our two countries … a desire to write an even more ambitious page of the relationship between Vietnam and France, between ASEAN and the European Union… With France, you have a familiar, safe, and reliable friend… and in the period we are living in, this alone has great value.”
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