Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said here on Monday that Russia is Vietnam 's strategic partner on energy and he expected Russia to assist Vietnam in its nuclear power projects.

Hai made the proposal at a meeting with Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina during her working visit to Vietnam .

Hai said Vietnam-Russia relations have a lot of potentials to further develop. He expressed his desire that the two sides will cooperate closely to establish joint-venture companies in Vietnam on mechanical, chemical and pharmaceutical products, the areas that Russian companies have strengths and capacities on.

These joint-venture companies, after setting foothold in Vietnam , can then reach out to other large and potential markets in Asia , Hai said.

During this period, the two sides have implemented many bilateral cooperation projects on oil and petroleum and further expanded the two countries' cooperation activities with the third partner.

At the meeting, Nabiullina appraised of the two governments' efforts to implement some big investment projects in the areas of energy and banking. She reaffirmed that energy remained the first prioritized field in Russian and Vietnamese cooperation.

Despite the global financial crisis and global economic depression, the two-way trade value continued to increase dramatically, said Nabiullina.

Nabiullina said she is satisfied on the development of the two countries' relations in the past few years. She highly appreciated Vietnam 's contribution to the development of Vietnam- Russian cooperation.