Vietnam and Russia have agreed to negotiate and sign agreements on building commercial nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement.

“The development of the plants with advanced technology will strictly be compliant with nuclear and radiation safety regulations and for the benefit of socio-economic development,” they said in the statement, which followed a visit to Moscow by Vietnamese leader To Lam.

Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said the visit “marked the transition to a new stage of cooperation” – a project to build a large nuclear power plant in the southeast Asian nation.