Vietnamese and Australian delegations led by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart Malcom Turnbull at a meeting in Vietnam in November 2017 (Source: VNA)Sydney (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s upcoming official visitto Australia in March will set up an important milestone in the relationsbetween the two nations, creating a solid foundation to raise the bilateral ties,said Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Ngo Huong Nam.
In a recent interview with Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Sydney, Nam saidthe visit is of special importance as it takes place at the time when the twocountries celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, 20years since the establishment of defence relations, eight years ofcomprehensive partnership and two years of enhanced comprehensive partnership.
As the first official visit to Australia by PM Phuc, it will contribute toaffirming Vietnam’s consistent policy of prioritizing the enhancement ofrelations with Australia, for the benefits of the two nations’ people and forpeace, security and prosperity in the region and the world, he noted.
Taking place on the threshold of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, the visitreflects the two countries’ strong commitment to regional peace, stability anddevelopment, he added.
Theambassador also highlighted the flourishing development of the Vietnam-Australiarelationship across pillars of politics, economy, security-defence,sci-technology, and culture-education.
Theincreasing mutual visits by the two countries’ leaders contributed to creating new opportunities and impulses to developbilateral cooperation in an intensive, practical and effective manner, he said.
According to the ambassador, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australiancounterpart Malcom Turnbull declared an intention to elevate theVietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership to a Strategic Partnership during thelatter’s attendance in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) EconomicLeaders' Week 2017 in Vietnam, and the two sides planned to sign anofficial document on this matter during PM Phuc’s upcoming visit to Australia.
Together with flourishing political ties, economic cooperation has recorded impressivefigures, with two-way trade surging by over 200 times in nearly three decades,from 32.3 million USD in 1990 to 6.46 billion USD in 2017.
Australia ranks 19th among 116 countries and territories investingin Vietnam, with 396 projects worth 1.82 billion USD.
The two sides are working to complete negotiations on the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreements.
Cooperation in security-defence has been bolstered effectively on the basis ofthe Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Defence Cooperation signed in 2010. Australiahas actively helped Vietnam improve capacity to join UN peacekeeping missions,and provided English courses for Vietnamese officers. The two sides alsoboosted maritime cooperation and conducted joint sea patrols.
The two sides successfully organised the first annual Defence Policy Dialogue inOctober 2017, and are working hard to build a common vision on defencecooperation.
Collaboration between Vietnam and Australia in culture-education also saw new breakthroughs.About 30,000 Vietnamese students are pursuing study in Australia. Australia isone of the ten tourist markets of Vietnam, with more than 307,000 of Australiansvisiting the Southeast Asian nation in 2017. Vietnam is also one of the most attractivedestinations for Australia students in the the Australian Government's New Colombo Plan programme.
Assistance provided by Australia for Vietnam in science andtechnology has helped the country create spectacular breakthroughs in the last30 years.
The two countries have maintained effective cooperation and coordinationat regional and global multilateral forums, especially the AEAN Regional Forum (ARF),the East Asia Summit, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and APEC
Ambassador Nam believed that these results will lay a solidfoundation for the two countries to establish their Strategic Partnership, buildinggreat orientations with long-term vision for bilateral relations in the time tocome.
Hesaid his embassy will do its best to further deepen and expand bilateral cooperationin the coming time, especially in economy, security-defence, andpeople-to-people exchange.
Prioritywill be paid to accelerating the negotiation, signing, and implementation ofthe CPTPP and the RCEP to boost free trade and internationalintegration, making it easy for Vietnamese goods to access the Australianmarket towards lifting two-way trade to 10 billion USD.
The agency will also take the advantage of existing bilateral cooperationmechanisms to boost collaboration in such potential fields as cleanagriculture, maritime economy, labour, tourism and climate change adaptation,he affirmed.-VNA
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