State President Nguyen Minh Triet made the statement while receiving Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in Hanoi on April 13.

FM Rudd spoke highly of the studious spirit and educational achievements of Vietnamese students in Australia.

There are about 25,000 Vietnamese students in Australia, and 16,000 others are pursuing their studies at Australian training centres based in Vietnam, he said.

According to the FM, Australia is one of the countries offering the most scholarships to Vietnamese students. In 2011, the Asia-Australia scholarship programme has offered 400 out of a total 5,000 scholarships to Vietnamese students.

At the meeting, President Triet also said Vietnam wants to boost bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.

He took this occasion to express his pleasure at the development of Vietnam-Australia relation in the spirit of comprehensive partnership and spoke highly of Kevin Rudd’s contributions to bilateral relations in his capacity as former Australian Prime Minister.

FM Kevin Rudd said Australia is willing to help Vietnam in its national construction and development process.

He also spoke highly of Vietnam’s role and position in ASEAN and the international arena, affirming that the Vietnam-Australia friendship and cooperation were not limited to the bilateral framework, but also expressed through multilateral mechanisms.

Australia wants to coordinate with Vietnam and other partners in the region to ensure security within the East Asia Summit framework, the Australian FM said.

The same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received the visiting Australian FM, during which he spoke highly of the results of talks between the Vietnamese and Australian FMs, saying that the agreements reached during the talks marked a new step in the development of bilateral diplomatic ties.

FM Kevin Rudd proposed the two countries promote cooperation, especially in mining and energy.

VNA