Vietnam highly values strategic partnership with Australia

At the talks

He made the statement on March 3 while having talks with Katrina Cooper, Deputy Secretary for Southeast Asia and Global Partners Group at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who paid a visit to Vietnam on March 2-4. 

During the talks, Mr. Vu thanked Australia for its timely supply of 7.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical materials, making it Vietnam’s second biggest vaccine donor.

Expressing her pleasure to visit Vietnam, Ms Katrina Cooper emphasized that Australia always appreciates the role and position of Vietnam in the region; and pledged to continue to make efforts promoting the strategic partnership between the two countries on all cooperation pillars, especially in the context that the two countries will celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2023.

The two Deputy Ministers highly appreciated the fact that in the context of the pandemic, the two sides still made efforts to maintain contacts at all levels regularly and flexibly deployed bilateral cooperation mechanisms, most notably the fact that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had two phone conversations with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (January and May 2021) and the two Prime Ministers had bilateral contact on the occasion of the COP-26 Conference (UK, November 2021), approving many important documents to promote the strategic partnership between the two countries. Economic-trade cooperation continues to be a bright spot in the bilateral relationship with a turnover of USD12.4 billion in 2021, an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2020.

The two Deputy Ministers also discussed specific measures to further strengthen the two countries' relations in such fields as national defense and security, education and training, ODA support, green growth, and agricultural technology, climate change and Mekong cooperation, as well as new cooperation pillars to consider establishing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries at an appropriate time. The two sides also exchanged views on the East Sea issue, emphasizing that disputes should be resolved peacefully, on the basis of respect for international law, especially UNCLOS 1982 and a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Within the framework of the visit, Ms. Katrina Cooper also paid a courtesy visit to Head of the Party Central Committee Commission of External Relations Le Hoai Trung; worked with Acting Head of ASEAN SOM Vu Ho; attended the Mekong Conference at the Diplomatic Academy; and met a number of Australian and Vietnamese businesses and partners./.