Vietnam and Australia lift ties to comprehensive strategic partnership

Both Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his visiting Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh made the announcement during their press briefing held shortly after their talks in Canberra on March 7.

They said that Vietnam and Australia have built a sustainable partnership, cooperation and friendship based on political trust and mutual respect, while sharing a common vision of an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

They held that the upgrade of the relationship aims to promote Vietnam – Australia cooperation in a deep, substantial, and effective manner, in areas such as climate change response, energy transition, digital transformation, innovation, trade - investment, agriculture, defense, education, and training.

Albanese expressed his joy that the Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has a number of additional cooperation pillars on climate change response, environment and energy, while both Australia and Vietnam have delivered net zero emissions commitments by 2050.

The two sides have established an annual dialogue mechanism between trade ministers; agreed to strengthen monitoring of the impact of climate change on the marine environment; and turning digital transformation, science and technology cooperation, and innovation into a new pillar in bilateral relations.

Albanese said the two sides are keen to promote trade and investment cooperation, noting that two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Australia reached AUD25.7 billion in 2023, an increase of 75% compared to 2020 and Vietnam has become a major trading partner of Australia.

He said Australia is implementing the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, that includes enhancing business links and promoting investment between the two sides. The Special Summit commemorating 50 years of ASEAN-Australia relations in Melbourne on March 4-6 examined a programme to enhance investment promotion and support for Australian technology companies in Vietnam.

During their talks, he said the two sides agreed to increase cooperation in the fields of education – training, labour and employment, while strengthening cooperation in promoting security and stability in the region, including finalizing a partnership agreement on peacekeeping. They also agreed to raise the security dialogue between Vietnam and Australia to the ministerial level.

Chinh for his part congratulated Australia on successfully organizing the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit marking 50 years of their dialogue partnership. He appreciated Australia’s active support and cooperation for Vietnam’s renewal, international integration and development process, including donating 26.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and maintaining high ODA for Vietnam.

He said the upgrade of the bilateral relationship framework would contribute to strengthening and deepening cooperation in all fields, from politics-diplomacy, defense-security to economics, trade, investment, science-technology, innovation, digital transformation, green conversion, climate change response, and people-to-people exchanges, thereby meeting the common aspirations of the two peoples, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large.

He said the upgrade of the bilateral relationship framework would contribute to strengthening and deepening cooperation in all fields, from politics-diplomacy, defense-security to economics, trade, investment, science-technology, innovation, digital transformation, green conversion, climate change response, and people-to-people exchanges, thereby meeting the common aspirations of the two peoples, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large.

The two sides agreed to further deepen regional and international cooperation by continuing to support each other at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations, ASEAN and ASEAN-led mechanisms; promoting peaceful dialogue and building trust between countries; increasing the central role of ASEAN; and bringing into full play Mekong sub-region cooperation mechanisms.

They affirmed that conflicts in the world should be resolved by peaceful means, in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter, in order to protect people and ensure no one is left behind.

With regard to the East Sea issue, the two sides reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the waters, while resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They agreed to exchange, share information and strengthen cooperation, striving to turn the East Sea into a sea of peace, stability, friendship, cooperation and comprehensive development, bringing benefits to the people of the region and relevant countries.

The two sides consented to create favorable conditions and ensure legal and legitimate rights and interests for people and businesses of the two countries to live, work and study in one another.

Chinh thanked Australia for creating conditions and supporting Vietnamese students and more than 350,000 Vietnamese expatriates living and working in their host country. He affirmed that Vietnam welcomes and creates favourable conditions for Australian citizens and businesses to study, work, and do business in the country.

The two PMs agreed to assign relevant agencies to actively implement the signed agreements during Chinh’s visit. The signed documents span 11 fields of cooperation, including education – training, energy-minerals, agriculture, science-technology and innovation, labour – employment, trade-investment-finance-banking, defense-peacekeeping, and justice.