Following is the full text of the interview:

Reporter: 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Vietnam - New Zealand diplomatic relations, and a significant milestone in this celebration is the official elevation of the bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. How do you assess the achievements in bilateral cooperation over the past half-century, and why is this the right time to upgrade the relationship?

PM Christopher Luxon: Look, it's a really special relationship New Zealand and Vietnam. It's been going for 50 years, and it really started with students going to New Zealand under the Colombo Plan and and from there, the people-to-people connections have been built, and what we have achieved in 50 years is fantastic. Two-way trade grew 40% in the last five years. But now is the right time for us to upgrade to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

And Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was the very first foreign leader that I invited to New Zealand when I became Prime Minister just over a year ago. And that's because I see that there is so much potential and values that we are aligned around, that we can continue to deepen and build out our relationship.

And I think now the challenge is, how do we bring it to life and actually benefit the people of Vietnam and the people of New Zealand and lift the living standards of both. There's obviously huge opportunities in our trade and around education, around tourism, around agriculture, around fruit and traditional products, but also New Zealand has got some really great emerging technologies and science as well. We are the fourth biggest country in the world for launching rockets into space, after the US, after China, after Russia, and so, you know, we have 88% of our energy from renewable energy sources.

So, we have lots of capability to actually to offer Vietnam, as Vietnam makes the transition into middle income and ultimately into high income by 2045. It's going to be an even more influential country, a wealthier country, and a country that's much more embedded in everyone's supply chains in the next 10 years. And so that's why it's a pretty cool time to be doing it.

Reporter: Prime Minister, you mentioned trade cooperation. As we know, both sides have agreed to increase bilateral trade turnover to 3 billion USD by 2026. Given the current potential of Vietnam and New Zealand, are you optimistic that this goal will be achieved soon?

PM Christopher Luxon: Yeah, look, I think in education, there is a real opportunity. I mean, New Zealand has eight universities. They're in the top 2% of the universities in the world. We have already a large number of Vietnamese students, but they do very, very well in New Zealand. It's a high-quality education, it's an English language education, and it's in a really safe and great environment as well. So, I think there's obviously an opportunity with undergraduates, but also in the upskilling of lecturers and professors and post doctoral, post graduate and doctoral students as well.

I think tourism is a good opportunity. And it's great that Vietjet is going to be offering services. That means airline to fly directly to New Zealand. And that just means that the people-to-people connections can happen more and more, as we have a huge number of New Zealanders, young New Zealanders, who want to come and travel throughout Vietnam. And also it's a chance for Vietnamese tourists to want to come to New Zealand and experience what we have.

But then I think the real opportunities are in the primary industries, the agriculture tech space, certainly in the climate and in the renewable energy space, and maybe ultimately into the space sector and advanced aviation as well. And the great thing is that Vietnam has got a very good plan and clear goal. We have capabilities that actually are very complementary, and we can work together and help each other grow our respective economies well.

Well, I think there's still a lot to do on the advanced agri tech space. I think there's a lot that we could be doing in the renewable energy space. We, as I said, are probably one of the top five countries in the world around renewable energy, but we really want to double the amount of renewables that we have ourselves, and so we have some we're on a bit of an agenda to see that we can go even deeper into the earth on geothermal so that we can extract more energy out of geothermal energy in particular, obviously, we've got a major focus on wind and solar as well as obviously, we've built some fantastic dams. And that's why, you know, some of the dam protection work that we do with the Vietnamese government is important work as well. So, yeah, I think there's real areas of collaboration and science and technology, where we both want to make big advances and to help, and that's what's going to ultimately make our people wealthier as a result.

Reporter: How do you assess Vietnam’s economic growth rate and its role in the region’s current trade activities?

PM Christopher Luxon: Well, there's no doubt about it. I mean, Vietnam has been the most, fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia for the last 25 years. I think you think you've averaged 5 to 6% growth every single year. That is two, sometimes even three times more than what developed countries are experiencing. But the fact that you've been able to do it year in year out, is just so impressive, and that's why, no doubt about it, you are the rising star within the region.

But importantly, if you look forward, your leaders want to even step up more of that ambition, and the reports are that the economy will continue to grow 7% a year for the next few years. So there's no doubt, Vietnam has done an exceptionally good job of building an economy, and it's taken millions of people out of poverty as a result of that economic growth.

Reporter: Education is a key bridge for connecting people. Could you share more thoughts on this, Prime Minister?

PM Christopher Luxon: Well, education is one of the things I admire about Vietnam, because I have just go back to the Temple of Literature, and I think about the progress that you have made with your PISA scores and your education system, you have done an exceptionally good job, but it is a core value of Vietnam as continued education.

And that's why I don't think there's any better education partner than New Zealand. You know, we have outstanding universities. We have fantastic research and development and science programmes that are focused on, you know, STEM subjects and economics and infrastructure and other things. That is what we've announced on this trip, is that we've got a 56% increase in the scholarships for Vietnamese students. We have, as I said, a good number of Vietnamese students, but we would love a lot more, because we actually think, you know, it's a great, high-quality environment for the students. But also the students bring a lot to the New Zealand education system as well.

Reporter: As one of the leaders attending the recently concluded ASEAN Future Forum (AFF) in Hanoi – an initiative led and hosted by Vietnam – how do you assess Vietnam’s role as well as ASEAN’s?

PM Christopher Luxon: Well, I think Vietnam is already playing a very important role within ASEAN. And I think what's important is that if you fast forward even 10 years from now, Vietnam is going to be a much wealthier country. It's going to be also a much more influential country, and it will also be very embedded into everybody's supply chain and a much higher value. And so, you know, Vietnam has a very important role to play within ASEAN.

The great thing about ASEAN is that the leaders, you know, really understand the spirit of ASEAN, and everyone's working very hard to continue to make sure that there is peace and security, so that there can be prosperity within the region. And obviously we are not a full member of ASEAN, but we are the second longest dialogue partner. And we also respect the centrality of ASEAN, that the ASEAN countries are the right countries to make the decisions about the opportunities and the challenges the region experiences.

And so, I think there's a great future. And of course, ASEAN, as an economy, will probably be the fourth biggest economy in the world in a very short period of time. So, it's got an increasing role to play, and within that, Vietnam has a very important role to play.

Reporter: Thank you very much for your interview!

New Zealand a reliable partner of Vietnam: State President

State President Luong Cuong affirmed New Zealand as a reliable partner of Vietnam and highlighted New Zealand's active cooperation and support for his country over the past half-century, while receiving New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Hanoi on February 26.