Australian Prime Minister to visit Vietnam: Leading partner in many fields

At the invitation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh , Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will pay an official visit to Vietnam from June 3 to 4, 2023.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - Photo source: Australian Government

This is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's first official visit to Vietnam since taking office and just two months after the State visit of the Governor-General of Australia.

On February 26, 1973, Vietnam and Australia established diplomatic relations and established embassies in each country. The two countries established a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009, an Enhanced Comprehensive Partnership in 2015, and upgraded to a Strategic Partnership in 2018.

The leaders of the two countries agreed on the direction to upgrade the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the appropriate time.

Vietnam's 7th largest trading partner

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to Vietnam takes place in the context of the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership having developed strongly, substantially and effectively in all fields in recent times. 2023 is also the year the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations (1973-2023).

Political relations are increasingly trustworthy, especially through the exchange of visits and contacts at high and all levels. In particular, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a phone call in October 2022 and met on the occasion of the 41st ASEAN Summit (Cambodia, November 2022) and at the expanded G7 Summit (Japan, May 2023).

Cooperation documents between the two countries, especially the Vietnam - Australia Strategic Partnership Action Program for the 2020-2023 period, are being actively implemented, achieving many specific results.

Over 20 bilateral cooperation mechanisms are flexibly maintained, including important mechanisms such as annual meetings of the two Prime Ministers, two Foreign Ministers, two Defense Ministers, the Economic Partnership Conference and cooperation between localities.

So far, the two sides have held the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Two Prime Ministers (online, January 2021), the 4th Annual Meeting of Foreign Ministers (September 2022), the 3rd Ministerial-level Economic Partnership Meeting (April 2023)...

Two-way trade turnover in 2022 will reach 15.7 billion USD, up 26.7% compared to 2021, of which Vietnam's exports will reach 5.6 billion USD, up 26.2% and imports will reach 10.1 billion USD, up 27.3%. In the first quarter of 2023, bilateral trade turnover will reach 3.41 billion USD.

Australia is currently Vietnam's 7th largest trading partner and Vietnam is Australia's 10th largest partner. Australia has opened its doors to lychees, mangoes, dragon fruits, longans, and frozen shrimp from Vietnam. Vietnam is urging Australia to allow the import of passion fruit, rambutan, star apple, fresh coconut, durian, and whole fresh shrimp. Australia is urging Vietnam to open its doors to the import of deer meat, kangaroo meat, honey, peaches, and nectarines.

By the end of February 2023, Australia had 590 investment projects in Vietnam with a total capital of about 2 billion USD, ranking 20th out of 141 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Vietnam invested in Australia with 88 projects with a total investment capital of 592.3 million USD, ranking 10th out of 79 countries and territories investing in Australia.

Substantive and effective cooperation in defense and security

The two sides have cooperated well, practically and effectively in the fields of security and defense through delegation exchanges, signing cooperation agreements, cooperation in crime prevention, immigration management, combating illegal immigration, information exchange, experience, English training, etc.

The two sides have upgraded the regular exchange mechanism at the Defense Minister level (2022); signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in peacekeeping training and mine clearance (2016). The Royal Australian Air Force has supported the transport of Vietnam's field hospital to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan four times. The two sides are discussing and preparing to sign a Peacekeeping Partnership Agreement.

Australian naval ships have visited Vietnam many times. Australia is the only country to have a permanent representative at the Vietnam Center for Transnational Crime Prevention (HCMC), through which the two sides regularly exchange intelligence information and cooperate in combating terrorism, human trafficking, drug crimes, etc.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the occasion of the 41st ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, November 2022 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Leading partner in ODA and COVID-19 vaccine support

Australia is one of the largest bilateral partners providing non-refundable ODA to Vietnam. In October 2022, the Australian Parliament decided to increase ODA to Vietnam by 18%, to 92.8 million AUD in 2022 - 2023 and this past May, it continued to increase to 95.1 million AUD. In the 50 years since establishing diplomatic relations, Australia has provided Vietnam with a total of 3 billion AUD (about 47,000 billion VND) in ODA.

During the storm and flood in the Central region (November 2020), the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister sent a letter of condolences and provided emergency support of 100,000 AUD and then an additional 2 million AUD to support Vietnam in overcoming the consequences of the storm and flood.

Australia is one of the countries that actively supports Vietnam in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.

In June 2020, Australia donated AUD 10.5 million to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. In March 2021, Australia announced a comprehensive support package worth AUD 60 million for Vietnam's pandemic prevention and control, including vaccine aid and support for vaccination implementation through UNICEF.

Regarding vaccines, Australia has donated 26.4 million doses to Vietnam (including 12 million doses for adults and 14.4 million doses for children), becoming Vietnam's second largest vaccine donor. Vietnam also donated medical supplies (masks) worth 50,000 USD to Australia (March 2021).

31,000 Vietnamese students and postgraduates are studying in Australia

Cooperation between the two countries in the fields of education and training, labor, agriculture, tourism, etc. has developed well and still has much potential.

Australia offers many scholarships for long-term and short-term programs for Vietnam. Currently, there are about 31,000 Vietnamese students and postgraduates studying in Australia (90% self-funded). As of March 2023, there are 45 joint programs, joint training, 200 cooperation documents, and joint research between universities and research institutes of the two countries.

In addition, universities/institutes of the two countries currently have 37 joint training programs in operation. RMIT University has opened 2 campuses (in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) with more than 6,000 students, and plans to open more in Da Nang, Can Tho and Hai Phong, increasing its investment capital by about 100 million AUD in Vietnam.

In October 2021, the two countries signed a supplementary agreement for the Vietnam-Australia Human Resource Development Program for the 2021-2025 period, worth AUD 50.1 million. After nearly 2 years of interruption due to COVID-19, in December 2021, Australia began to open its borders to welcome international students, including Vietnamese students, back to Australia.

The number of Australian tourists to Vietnam has increased steadily over the years, and airlines from both countries have resumed direct flights after COVID-19 with a frequency of 17 direct flights/week.

In 2019, there were nearly 390,000 Australian visitors to Vietnam (ranked 6th out of 10 leading markets); temporarily suspended due to the pandemic situation from April 2020 and resumed from March 2022. The number of Vietnamese tourists to Australia has increased steadily over the years, reaching 125,000 (in 2019), ranking 18th out of 57 markets with tourists to Australia.

The Working Holiday Maker Program (March 2015) allows Vietnamese citizens to travel to Australia for both tourism and work, and the two sides agreed to increase the quota from 200 people (in 2015) to 1,500 people/year from September 2019.

The two countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural visas (March 2022), expected to send 1,000 Vietnamese workers to work in Australia in the agricultural sector each year; the two sides are discussing and adjusting the implementation of this Memorandum of Understanding within the framework of the South Pacific Labour Program.

Cooperation between localities of the two countries is developing well; to date, there have been 15 pairs of twin localities. The Vietnamese community in Australia has about 350,000 people (ranking 5th among the ethnic communities of foreign origin in Australia).

Australia is also interested in promoting a number of new areas of cooperation with Vietnam such as climate change response, digital transformation, and energy transformation.

Australia is an important member with a voice at multilateral forums and on the international stage, making effective contributions to ASEAN and Mekong Sub-region cooperation; actively supporting Vietnam at regional and international forums, most recently supporting Vietnam's candidacy for membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term.

The two countries cooperate closely on regional and international issues of mutual concern, including the East Sea issue; promote cooperation at multilateral organizations and forums (United Nations, ASEAN, APEC...) and free trade agreements that both countries participate in and sign (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Taking place just 2 months after the State visit of the Governor-General of Australia, the visit of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is of great significance, demonstrating Australia's importance in its relations with Vietnam, and will continue to contribute to strengthening political trust, promoting multi-faceted cooperation such as politics-diplomacy, defense-security, economy, investment, labor, education, technology, climate change, people-to-people exchange, cooperation in regional and international issues of mutual concern...

Baochinhphu.vn

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/thu-tuong-australia-sap-tham-viet-nam-doi-tac-hang-dau-tren-nhieu-linh-vuc-102230601151022645.htm