Vietnam, Australia share common values in bilateral relations

Both sides celebrated 50 years of their diplomatic relations last year.

The achievements across a variety of fields that the bilateral relationship has brought about over the past five decades shows that bilateral relations bring plenty of benefits to both side.

Having gone through many stages of development, from "wanting to be friends" to "being ready" to make friends, Vietnam is now "a friend, a trusted partner" of Australia, as evidenced by the two countries moving to upgrade their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership in 2018.

The past five decades has also shown that, despite being geographically far apart, the two countries have many commonalities and advantages that can be built upon. That is, being in the same region, having close connections between people, having complementary economies, and both proactively making efforts aimed at boosting prosperity and solidarity in the region.

Not only that, the two countries are also facing common challenges such as climate change and a transition to a green economy.

These are solid foundations in terms of the relationship between the two nations as they continue to develop to a new stage. This is what Layton Pike, co-founder of the Australia-Vietnam Policy Institute, hopes to build upon during this Australia visit by PM Chinh.

​According to Pike, both countries share many common values, not only in their bilateral ties but also in their aspirations for the region. The two sides have two economies that complement each other, meaning that if they work together, they can achieve many accomplishments. Both nations therefore need to upgrade their relationship to a new level to bring many good benefits for the two countries and to the whole region, he added.

Currently, both sides are stepping efforts to exploit the advantages of this current relationship, as well as holding regular meetings between leaders to strengthen ties and increase understanding, political trust, and confidence between the two countries.

Co-operation between the two nations in many spheres from politics-diplomacy, security-national defence, science-technology, education, economics-trade, and people-to-people exchanges have all been rapidly strengthened.

The two countries are also discussing ways in which to open more opportunities for co-operation in new fields such as innovation, the green economy, the digital economy, digital transformation, clean energy transformation, the environment, and climate change response.

Particularly in the field of trade and investment, last year saw Australia issue the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, which proposed four areas that will promote relations with the Vietnamese side, including agriculture and food, resources, transition to green energy, education, and skills.

Nicolas Moore, special envoy for Southeast Asia of the Australian Government, said that the Australian side is making great efforts to conduct research and provide information, thereby enabling Australian businesses to better understand the Vietnamese side and further facilitate the co-operation process with Vietnam.

The mutual relationship has a favourable space, strong political determination, and support from the people to bring bilateral relations to new heights in which the two sides will continue to make relentless efforts aimed at creating and seizing upon opportunities to bring benefits, not only to both countries, but also to contribute to ensuring stability and prosperity in the region as a whole.​