VOV: What is your comment on bilateral ties between Vietnam and Australia?

Mr Twedell: The bilateral ties between Australia and Vietnam are strong and long-standing - our diplomatic relations with Vietnam extend back well over 30 years, to 1973. But not only have they lasted, they are broad, encompassing such areas as defence, immigration and border control, police and law enforcement, and civil aviation, as well as more traditional areas of cooperation like development assistance, cooperation in agricultural research and development, education, tourism, trade and investment.

A key element is the significant population of Australians of Vietnamese descent who provide a strong and enduring link between our two countries. All of this has meant that the two countries have come to know each other better over many years now, cooperating, exchanging ideas and information, sharing dreams and challenges, and learning more about each other all the time.

And these strong bilateral bonds extend to cooperation between Australia and Vietnam in multilateral bodies of which we are both members, such as APEC. Vietnam played host extraordinarily well in 2006 and we face a challenge of matching that performance in 2007 as the next host, and in other arenas such as the more recently-established East Asia Summit process. So, bilateral ties are in a very good shape.

VOV: What have been the emphases in the bilateral ties in recent years?

Mr Twedell: In recent years – the last 10-20 years – our relationship has expanded in exciting ways. Our law enforcement and immigration agencies are cooperating closely in a variety of different areas, bringing significant benefits to both countries.

For example, in 2006, Australia and Vietnam signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding on police cooperation – called “The Memorandum of Understanding on Combating Transnational Crime and Developing Police Cooperation”.

Beyond that we also signed a memorandum of understanding between border management agencies in intelligence exchange, capacity building, professional development. The Jewel in the Crown of our law enforcement relationship is the Asia Region Law Enforcement Management Programme (ARLEMP), under which the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) provide staff of law enforcement agencies throughout our region with training in the latest in management policy and practice as it may be applied to law enforcement. 

And the training is provided through the RMIT International University Vietnam, the only wholly foreign-owned university in Vietnam, at its Hanoi campus. We established formal military-to-military links in the late 1990s, including posting defence attachés in each other’s countries. This has been followed by significant exchanges in training, including English-language training, and capability building, and also a number of navy ship visits. Our civil aviation cooperation is growing, with Australian airline JetStar now flying directly from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City three times a week.

Many thousands of students, tourists and business people travel and study in Australia and Vietnam each year, building strong and important people-to-people links between our two countries.

VOV: How do you think the ties will develop in the future?

Mr Twedell: To judge by the growth in the last few years, bilateral relations will continue to develop in exciting ways. Bilateral relations have been given a new impetus by the reform process underway in Vietnam, as embodied by the accession to the WTO, which will help the trade relationship to develop.

But whether it is defence, police, education, tourism, development assistance, or agricultural cooperation, all of these have great potential to draw our countries together. WTO’s accession, Vietnam’s performance as APEC host and even prospective membership of the UN Security Council in coming years all combine to signal the emergence of Vietnam into the world stage. I’m excited to be here to see Vietnam hopefully move into a new stage in its international integration, development and engagement with other partners, such as Australia. We sincerely hope that Australia and Vietnam become ever closer partners in advancing the prosperity and security of the region and the world. And we will be working to ensure that the areas we develop in our relationship are aimed at achieving that goal.

VOV: What are your personal impressions on the country and the people after some years working here as the Australian ambassador?

Mr Twedell: For a start, I feel extremely fortunate to be Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam at this time of Vietnam’s development and of the evolution in our bilateral time– Vietnam has always been a country of great interest to both me and my wife. It’s quite interesting to see how much affection Australians have towards this country. In regards to the people, they are impressive, I think you have heard before, with their industry, energy, high priority on education, and the way they look forward, their sense of humour, all of these things are just infectious and make our stay in Vietnam so much more personally enriching.

Another thing is that Vietnam is a safe, culturally interesting, unspoiled and friendly place in which to travel. No wonder so many family and friends have come to stay with us in our first 17 months here – often more than once. I go back to what I started with and the real thing that I love about Vietnam is the friendliness and character of the people.

VOV: Thank you.