The Government of Australia hopes to boost pragmatic cooperation with Vietnam in all fields, especially economy, trade, and education-training.
Visiting Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove expressed the wish at a meeting with Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi on May 24.
He expressed his pleasure at the growing relationship of the two countries, which was elevated to strategic partnership in March 2018.
The Governor-General hailed Vietnam for sending more officers to the UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan.
He pledged to support Vietnam to run for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure.
For his part, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong welcomed the Governor-General to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Vietnam-Australia diplomatic ties.
He believed that the newly-established strategic partnership framework will help deepen the bilateral cooperation in all realms.
Vietnam always backs the role of Australia in the Asian-Pacific region and hopes the two countries will strengthen coordination in regional and international issues, he said.
He highlighted the increasing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries with a large number of overseas Vietnamese living and studying in Australia.
The Party chief thanked the Australian Government for its active and effective assistance for Vietnam over the past time, including the construction of My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges built with Australian funding in the Mekong Delta region.
During the meeting, the host and guest also shared common viewpoints on several regional and global matters, including the East Sea issue.
Vietnam and Australia established a comprehensive partnership in 2009 and signed a declaration on enhancing the bilateral comprehensive partnership in March 2015. The two nations elevated their ties to the level of strategic partnership in March 2018 during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s official visit to Australia.
Over the past 45 years, Vietnam and Australia have focused on cooperation in economy and trade. Australia is now the eighth biggest trade partner of Vietnam. Two-way trade records annual average growth of over 7 percent, reaching nearly 6.5 billion USD in 2017, a year-on-year rise of 22.2 percent.
Australia now ranks 20th among 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 412 investment projects worth 1.8 billion USD, focusing on industry and construction, processing industry, services, education, and agro-forestry-fisheries.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is running 44 investment projects in Australia with total capital of 387.1 million USD, concentrating on processing and manufacturing industry, arts, entertainment, mining and services.