HANOI, Oct. 6 – Vietnam and the European Union signed an aviation agreement on Monday that will remove nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreement between the EU member states and Vietnam.

According the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, the agreement will allow any EU airline to operate flights between any EU Member State and Vietnam, where a bilateral agreement exists and traffic rights are available.

Any EU airline will be able to operate flights between Vietnam and any EU member state in which it is established, where a bilateral agreement between the EU Member State concerned and Vietnam already exists and traffic rights are available.

Eurocham said that the agreement represents an important step towards strengthening aviation relations between the EU and Vietnam.

The European Union currently has 45 such horizontal agreements with partner countries worldwide.