Australia wants to promote strategic partnership with Vietnam
VOV.VN - Australia wants to raise its strategic partnership with Vietnam to a new level, Foreign Minister Marise Payne told her host Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on November 9.
Australia considers Vietnam a strategic partner in various areas such as infrastructure development, agriculture, poverty reduction, climate change response, said Payne who arrived in Hanoi on November 9 for an official visit to Vietnam.
For his part, PM Chinh spoke highly of the positive development of the Vietnam-Australia relations, noting that despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic two-way trade turnover in the first nine months of 2021 still grew more than 50% year on year to US$9.1 billion.
In addition, Australia has maintained high official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam, reaching AUD78.9 million in the 2021-2022 financial year.
He suggested that Australia provide continued ODA for Vietnam and consider opening its market for some Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products. At the same time, he requested Australia to implement an agricultural visa program for Vietnamese workers, and encourage enterprises of the two countries to invest and do business in their respective markets.
Chinh thanked Australia’s commitments to donating 5.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies to Vietnam, and expected that the Morrison government will continue to assist Vietnam with pandemic control and economic recovery, enhance the country’s capacity to address climate change challenges and train quality human resources.
Minister Payne voiced her support for the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s proposals, especially those regarding economic, trade, investment, education – training cooperation.
She announced that Australia will continue to deliver an additional 2.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, raising its total number of vaccines to Vietnam to more than 7.8 million doses.
She said Australian businesses are keen on the Vietnamese market, and wish to expand investment in the country in the near future.
Both host and guest shared the view that the two sides will maintain the exchange of delegations and contact at all levels and deploy existing cooperation mechanisms in various flexible forms. They agreed to effectively implement the Vietnam - Australia Action Program for 2020-2023 and the Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy in order to soon double their two-way trade turnover and make the two countries become their top 10 trading partners.
The two sides also agreed to promote cooperation to maximize opportunities in the fields of digital transformation, innovation, economic restructuring, green growth among others in the context of the pandemic.
Minister Payne affirmed that Australia highly appreciates Vietnam’s stance on the East Sea issue, and fully supports the peaceful settlement of international disputes in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
