Vietnam puts forward initiatives for stronger ASEAN-Australia partnership

In his speech at a leaders’ plenary session of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, Chinh first highly appreciated the close and long-standing relationship between ASEAN and Australia, as well as Australia’s cooperation and support for ASEAN over the past 50 years.

Australia is the first dialogue partner and also one of the first partners to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN. Bilateral cooperative relations are developing dynamically in all fields, from politics – security to economics, culture, social affairs and development cooperation.

2022 saw two-way trade turnover reach US$101.08 billion, an increase of nearly 20% compared to 2021, while foreign direct investment from Australia into ASEAN hit US$2.01 billion, an increase of 6.5 times compared to 2021, nearly reaching the pre-pandemic level in 2019.

Australia is also one of the leading partners to support ASEAN in building the its community, and provide scholarships for students from ASEAN countries, as well as technical financial support to help enhance connectivity, narrow the development gap, and develop the Mekong sub-region.

To further foster bilateral cooperation, the Vietnamese PM proposed that ASEAN and Australia make a breakthrough in economic, trade and investment cooperation, striving to double their two-way trade turnover in the next 10 years. He underscored the need for both sides to achieve a breakthrough in human resource development cooperation, especially high quality human resources and labour cooperation.

Another major breakthrough for ASEAN and Australia will be in science - technology and innovation cooperation, with a primary focus on developing the digital economy, green transformation, circular economy and emerging industries and other fields such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. To this end, he proposed organizing an ASEAN-Australia summit on digital economy to exchange cooperation opportunities, including the possibility of negotiating a digital economy agreement between the two sides.

In addition, the Vietnamese PM proposed that ASEAN and Australia enhance political trust and cooperation to ensure regional peace and security; uphold a culture of dialogue and cooperation; promote confidence building and preventive diplomacy; and encourage countries to make responsible contributions to the region.

He stressed the need for both sides to enhance sub-regional cooperation and narrow the development gap for inclusive and sustainable development, especially in strategic infrastructure connection projects, helping to create positive socio-economic changes in poor and underdeveloped sub-regions of ASEAN.

Last but not least, he proposed strengthening cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, by bringing full play the strength of more than 1 million people of ASEAN countries, including more than 350,000 Vietnamese expatriates, in Australia, contributing to promoting understanding, empathy and cohesion, especially between younger generations of the two sides, thereby strengthening the long-term, strong social foundation for the relationship.

During the meetings, the two sides agreed to make strong changes in economic trade and investment cooperation through effective implementation of the newly upgraded ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). They also vowed to ramp up cooperation in new fields such as innovation, digital economy, green transformation, energy conversion, e-commerce, and connectivity, among others, to turn them into new growth drivers for economic relations in future.

Australia is playing host to the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne from March 4-6 to mark 50 years of the dialogue partnership between the two sides.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is attending the summit at the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.