The Vietnamese National Assembly supports strengthening strategic partnership between Vietnam and Australia, creating a new important framework to push forward their deeper and more practical ties, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan told Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove during a meeting in Hanoi on May 24.
Ngan said following her Australia visit in 2017, she directed the NA’s Committee of External Relations, ministries and agencies concerned to implement signed agreements between the two nations, especially in training, agriculture, transport, mining, and national defence-security.
She expressed her delight at the growing ties between the Vietnamese NA and Australian Parliament, bilaterally and multilaterally on the basis of signed agreements with the Australia House of Representatives in 2009 and the Australian Parliament in 2013.
Both sides have facilitated the exchange of all-level visits and overseen the implementation of signed agreements between the two governments.
In particular, the two legislatures established friendly parliamentarians’ groups which will build cooperation plans to foster bilateral ties, including that between the two law-making bodies.
According to her, the Governor will attend events in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Following the visit, the Australian Foreign Minister plans to arrive in Vietnam to attend a ceremony inaugurating Cao Lanh bridge which is funded by Australia.
“These are meaningful activities to realize Vietnam-Australia strategic partnership and reinforce the friendship and mutual understanding between the two people,” she said.
Cosgrove, for his part, wished to witness more trade activities between the two nations.
As two-way trade of nearly 6.5 billion USD in 2017 was unmatched with the two nations’ existing potentials, he hoped that the figure would increase in the near future.
He said education is one of the closest bonds between the two countries with over 30,000 Vietnamese students pursuing studies in Australia, and wished that more Vietnamese students will come to the Pacific nation in the coming time.
Speaking highly of Vietnam’s initiative to assign personnel to the South Sudan for the United Nations peacekeeping mission, he said Australia will offer logistics support to Vietnam to fulfill assigned tasks.
On the occasion, the host conveyed her thanks to the Australian Parliament for assisting the Vietnamese legislature in successfully organising the 26th annual Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum in January 2018.
She also asked the Governor-General to convey her invitation to President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia to visit Vietnam.