StatePresident Nguyen Minh Triet made the statement while receivingAustralian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in Hanoi on April 13.
FM Rudd spoke highly of the studious spirit and high learning achievements of Vietnamese students in Australia .
There are about 25,000 Vietnamese students in Australia , and 16,000others are pursuing their study at Australian training centres based inVietnam , he said.
According to the FM, Australiais one the countries offering the most scholarships to Vietnamesestudents. In 2011, the Asia-Australia scholarship programme offered 400of a total 5,000 scholarships to Vietnamese students.
At the meeting, President Triet also said Vietnam wanted to boost bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.
He took this occasion to express his pleasure at the developments ofthe Vietnam-Australia relationship in the spirit of comprehensivepartnership and spoke highly of Kevin Rudd’s contributions to bilateralrelations in his capacity as former Australian Prime Minister.
ThePresident thanked the Australian government and people-to-people fortheir assistance to Vietnam in national construction anddevelopment, especially official development assistance (ODA), citing MyThuan and Cao Lanh bridges in the Mekong Delta region as themanifestations of the friendship between the two countries.
He also asked the two countries to promote people exchanges and cultural cooperation.
President Triet reiterated Vietnam ’s policy of expanding cooperationwith foreign countries in the world, including Australia , an importantpartner of Vietnam .
FM Kevin Rudd said Australia was willing to help Vietnam in the Southeast country’s construction and development process.
He also spoke highly of Vietnam ’s role and its position in ASEANand the international arena, affirming that the Vietnam-Australiafriendship and cooperation were not limited to the bilateral framework,but also expressed through multilateral mechanisms.
Australia wanted to coordinate with Vietnam and other partners inthe region to ensure security within the East Asia Summit framework, theAustralian FM said.
The same day, Prime Minister NguyenTan Dung received the visiting Australian FM, during which he spokehighly of the results of talks between the Vietnamese and AustralianFMs, saying that agreements reached during the talks would mark a newstep in bilateral diplomatic ties.
Vietnam wanted to boostcooperation with Australia in order to further develop bilateralrelations and increase mutual understanding between the two nations andtwo peoples, PM said.
He also asked the two Governments andForeign Ministries to build a consultation mechanism to boost jointprogrammes and projects.
FM Kevin Rudd proposed the two countries promote cooperation, especially in mining and energy./.