Australia PM arrives in Hanoi, pledging to boost economic, security ties with Vietnam

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Linh Pham 11:43, 2019/08/22

The Australian PM said he and his Vietnamese counterpart will discuss the importance of protecting their oceans.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his spouse have arrived in Hanoi for a two-day visit beginning August 22 in the context that Vietnam and Australia are on path to deepen the relationship which was upgraded to “strategic partnership” in March 2018.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: APP

“Our focus will be on strengthening economic, security and people-to-people cooperation between our two countries,” AAP quoted Morrison as saying. “We will also be discussing the importance of protecting our oceans, including against plastics pollution and illegal fishing,” he said.

He will be the first Australian prime minister to make a stand-alone visit to Vietnam since 1994.

The visit aims to discuss measures for the further partnership which the two countries have agreed with in March 2018, PM Scott Morrison said in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency.

The two PMs will focus on promoting people exchange and cooperation in economics and security during the visit, the Australian PM said, adding that trade has risen sharply over the past years.

Scott Morrison affirmed that Vietnam is one of Australia’s leading partners and both countries expect free trade and freedom of maritime navigation.

He said that the bilateral ties are currently better than ever and the two countries are making efforts to strengthen it.

Trade in the spotlight

Scott Morrison noted that the two countries are building up “realistic” economic partnership with the two-way trade hit a record high of AUD14.5 billion (US$9.8 billion) in 2018, doubling that in 2012. The bilateral trade maintained an annual growth rate of 11% over the past five years.

Australia’s main staples to Vietnam include coal, iron ore and cotton together with beef, wheat, wine and farm produce, contributing largely to the increasing trade turnover.

In addition, both Vietnam and Australia are members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the upcoming Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or ASEAN + 6 this year.

Education is also one of the most important fields in the bilateral ties. Currently, nearly 23,000 Vietnamese students are pursuing courses in Australia.

“If the Australian higher education market is looking to diversify from its over-dependency on Chinese students, obviously Vietnamese students would be one of the key markets to tap into,” Dr. Le Thu Huong, senior analyst at Australian Strategic Policy Institute told AAP.

Security, defense ties

Vietnam and Australia have developed defense ties for the past 21 years with a milestone – the Joint Statement on Defense Cooperation inked in November 2018 by the two countries' defense ministers, the Australian PM said.

Since 2011, Australia has provided English courses for Vietnam’s peacekeeping forces and teaching tools for the training. In October 2018, Australia carried out Vietnam’s peacekeeping forces and equipment for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Efforts made in defense ties over the past two decades are resulted from the fact that both Australia and Vietnam want to make the Indo-Pacific region of safety, stability, and sovereignty integrity.

Accordingly, the two countries have boosted cooperation in maritime security (port of call and exercises), anti-terrorism, aviation safety, and military health, the PM said.

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