Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam and Russia’s top oil and gas companies signed several cooperation agreements and memoranda to expand their ties in the energy sector, VN Express reported. The deals were sealed during the first foreign visit of Vietnam’s recently appointed Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and Russia’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev.

A total of eight agreements between the two countries were signed, five of which are in the oil and gas sector, Platts wrote. PetroVietnam signed a cooperation agreement with Rosneft, two memoranda of understanding and a personnel training pact with gas giant Gazprom, –on new oil and gas upstream projects and gas use in power generation– and a production sharing agreement with Vietsovpetro, its joint venture (JV) with Russia’s Zarubezhneft.

“We must make sure that all agreements are implemented at the highest level, as a reflection of the high level of our relations,” Phuc said in a press briefing. By his side, Russia reaffirmed its shared commitment to advancing the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam, Medvedev said. “Not only do we supply our technology and produce oil and gas, but we actually performed a deposit swap, which is something we haven’t done with any other country.”

Other agreements between the two countries included a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Russian Direct Investment Fund and Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) foreseeing each side investing $250m, in joint non-energy projects and helping Vietnam’s large and medium-sized businesses enter Russia.