Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on March 15 signed a joint statement on the establishment of the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership following their talks in Canberra, Australia, as part of the Vietnamese premier’s official visit.
The two sides shared the delight at the strong and substantial progress of the Vietnam-Australia partnership over the past 45 years, with strengthened political trust and strategic interest sharing, which has paved the way for them to lift up bilateral ties to strategic partnership.
In order to realize the bilateral strategic partnership dynamically and practically, the two sides concurred to set up contact mechanisms at the level of foreign, defense and economic ministers, while maintaining existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the diplomatic and defense strategic dialogues, consular consultations, dialogues on agriculture, education and science-technology.
Both sides also agreed to enhance cooperation in coping with common security challenges, including terrorism, transnational crimes, human trafficking and illegal migration, thus ensuring security in each country and contributing to peace, stability in the region.
They agreed to create optimal conditions for the intensive and comprehensive development of bilateral economic ties, increasing economic interests in the bilateral relations on the basis of the complementary nature of the two economies.
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Both host and guest stressed the need to expand investment in each other’s strong fields. PM Phuc asked Australia to encourage its businesses to invest in Vietnam in energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, knowledge-based economy, and science and technology.
Phuc proposed Australia to continue providing ODA for Vietnam, focusing on infrastructure, agriculture, rural development, climate change, high-quality human resources development and e-government building.
After the talks, the two premiers witnessed the signing of four important documents, including an agreement on educational cooperation between the two governments for 2018-23; a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on vocational education; an MoU on enhancing collaboration in science and technology; and an MoU on cooperation in the spheres of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Leaders of the two countries’ defense ministries also signed a document on the recognition of the intention to enhance defense cooperation between the two countries.
During the visit, PM Phuc also attended the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Sydney on March 18.
Within the framework of the Summit, officials of Australia and the ASEAN member states signed a MoU on strengthening cooperation to counter international terrorism, which is considered a historic breakthrough contributing to strengthening the two sides’ collaboration in ensuring regional security.
* Earlier on March 13 in Auckland, New Zealand, PMs Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern agreed on major directions to boost the future Vietnam-New Zealand cooperation in all fields.
They witnessed the signing of an agreement on economic and trade cooperation; a deal on cooperation in food safety and quality management; and a strategic cooperation plan on education and training for the 2018-20 period.
A joint statement on advancing the comprehensive partnership toward the strategic partnership between Vietnam and New Zealand was also issued during PM Phuc’s visit.-(VLLF)
