Welcoming the Minister, on the side of FTU, there was: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Anh Tuan - President, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy - Vice President together with some leaders of units and a large number of students.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Anh Tuan - President of FTU gave a gift for the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Margot Wallstrom

At the meeting, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Anh Tuan - President of FTU warmly welcomed the Minister. Despite her busy schedule in Vietnam, she still took her time to visit and have a meeting with the teachers and students of FTU. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Anh Tuan said that the visit of the Minister was a great significance to strengthen the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Sweden - the first European country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam since 1969. He has expressed his honor when Foreign Trade University was chosen as the place where Mrs. Margot Wallstrom had a lectures with the Vietnamese youth on feminism.

Mrs. Margot Wallstrom - the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden was delivering her speech at the meeting

The Minister expressed her gratitude and was deeply moved by the warm welcome of FTU for her. She has known that Foreign Trade University was one of the most prestigious universities in Vietnam. Mrs. Margot Wallstrom said that having a chance to lecture to FTU students was an honor for her personally during this visit to Vietnam. She also expressed the good impression of the beautiful country of Vietnam, the hospitality of Vietnamese as well as the dynamism of FTU students in particular and the Vietnamese youth in general.

The talk by the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs on the theme "A Feminist Foreign Policy for a Peaceful Global Order" was discussed about the policy of protecting women's rights and gender equality. During 3 years of operation, this project has gained a lot of success in connecting, policymaking, and preventing violence as well as the signing of cooperation agreements from Sweden.

Mrs. Margot asserted that contrary to the opinion of this policy was biased, all these activities share the same goal of reaching global gender equality thence helps the woman to be more self-reliant and promotes economic growth.

In answering questions from FTU students about gender, gender equality, the Minister has emphasized the importance of education - a lever for all development. The universalization of education and training was not only for women but for the entire population as the task needed to be done first. At the same time, Mrs. Margot also affirmed the role of feminism in economic, political, educational and humanitarian activities, thus pointing out that gender equality was an issue that needs to be resolved thoroughly.

On the Sweden side, the government is now actively working with the EU to boost the trade balance in order to stimulate economic growth. For the specific issues that young students of FTU have mentioned about the fight for feminism in Vietnam, Mrs. Margot Wallstrom hopes to share more details about experiences as well as advices for Vietnam at the forums in the near future.

During this visit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed her pleasure and expectation to meet with young people - future generation to create a community of equality and strong development. In the last 30 years, Vietnam has made positive changes in many different fields. Mrs. Margot hopes the cooperation between the two countries will be stronger and will make more strides in the fight for women's rights and gender equality in the future. 

 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thu Thuy - Vice President of FTU took photo with Mrs. Margot Wallstrom - the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden 

FTU students asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs some question