FOREIGN AFFAIR
From March 5th to March 11th, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made an official visit to Australia and New Zealand and attended the Special High-Level Conference marking the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia relations.
During the working visit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had more than 50 activities in four different cities in Australia and New Zealand. The conference holds special significance as it commemorates 50 years, a “Golden Milestone”, of ASEAN and Australia relations to set the direction for further development in the new phase. Attending the Special High-Level Conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia relations, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed “3 breakthroughs, 3 enhancements, and 3 together” in ASEAN-Australia relations, which were highly appreciated by the leaders; many contents were documented. Notably, on this occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had bilateral contacts with all delegation heads attending the conference, including leaders of ASEAN countries, Timor Leste, Australia, New Zealand, and the ASEAN Secretary-General. The meetings took place in a sincere and open atmosphere, with substantive discussions. Partners highly appreciated Vietnam's role and position and expressed a desire to deepen relations between the two sides in all areas, especially in economic trade, science and technology, education and training, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.
Immediately after attending the Special ASEAN-Australia High-Level Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, along with his spouse and the high-level Vietnamese delegation, made an official visit to Australia and New Zealand, Vietnam's strategic partners in the South Pacific.
Both countries accorded Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his spouse, and the Vietnamese delegation a warm and respectful reception according to the highest diplomatic protocol reserved for the Head of Government, with 19 rounds of ceremonial welcomes. The Australian Governor-General personally drove Prime Minister Chinh and his spouse in an electric car to visit the Government House. The New Zealand government honored Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse with a special ceremony welcoming esteemed guests of the indigenous Maori people.
The official visit to Australia and New Zealand by the Prime Minister was also successful in all aspects, marking an important milestone in Vietnam's relations with these two countries.
In Australia, the highlight of the visit was when Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese jointly announced the elevation of Vietnam-Australia relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to closely coordinate to implement six major directions, including: enhanced political trust, higher-level diplomacy, and strategy; more comprehensive, substantial, and effective economic, trade, and investment cooperation, leveraging the potential of the two complementary economies; promoting cooperation in science-technology, innovation, digital transformation, and strong green transition; cultural cooperation, education-training, environment, comprehensive climate change adaptation, and people-to-people exchanges; open and sincere understanding, empathy, and increased sharing on security-defense cooperation.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held meetings with Governor-General David Hurley, Senate President Sue Lines, and opposition leader Peter Dutton; he also met with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Australia-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group, along with many other Australian leaders. The Prime Minister participated in and delivered speeches at the Business Forum, the Education Forum, the inauguration ceremony of the Australia-Vietnam Policy Research Institute, and visited several scientific research and educational institutions in Australia. The Prime Minister also met with some Vietnamese communities and representatives in Australia.
During the visit, the two countries' ministries and agencies signed 13 cooperation agreements in various fields. Universities from both countries also signed nine cooperation agreements.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had talks with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and met with some high-level New Zealand leaders. Through the visit, both sides enhanced political trust and mutual understanding, as well as cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, education, and people-to-people exchanges, and opened opportunities for cooperation in new areas such as climate change adaptation, digital transformation, etc.
Both sides also agreed to enhance coordination to boost trade promotion activities to reach a bilateral trade turnover target of USD 2 billion this year and explore measures to achieve bilateral investment of USD 500 million by 2030.
On this occasion, ministries and agencies from both sides signed three cooperation agreements in the fields of education, economics, trade, and finance. These are the foundation and premise for the specific and effective cooperation of ministries and agencies of the two countries in the coming years, contributing to the stable and sustainable development of the Vietnam-New Zealand strategic partnership.
Both Australia and New Zealand highly appreciate Vietnam's position and increasingly prominent role in the region and the world; they agreed to continue cooperating and supporting each other at regional and international forums for the benefit of their peoples and for the peace, stability, and development of the region and the world.
The Prime Minister's working visit to Australia and New Zealand concluded successfully, effectively implementing the foreign policy direction of the 13th National Party Congress to further strengthen and deepen relations with partners, especially strategic partners, comprehensive partners, important partners, and traditional friends.
Ngan An