Vietnam-Australia strategic partnership makes impressive progress: expert

Sydney (VNA) – The Vietnam-Australia relationship is expected to be elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which demonstrates their high political trust , an expert has said.

The advancement will help deepen the existing cooperation pillars, while expanding the collaboration to such new areas as climate change response, digital transformation, green economy and green energy, Dr. Nguyen Hong Hai, from the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland of Australia, told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s correspondents in Sydney ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to Vietnam from June 3-4.

According to the researcher, since Vietnam and Australia established a strategic partnership five years ago, their cooperation in the three pillars of economy, trade and investment; education-training; and national defence and security has made impressive progress.

Australia is now Vietnam's seventh biggest trade partner, while Vietnam is Australia's 10th biggest trade partner, he said, adding that their bilateral trade was valued at some 16 billion USD in late 2022, and 3.4 billion USD in the first quarter of this year.

Australia is running more than 550 projects worth nearly 2 billion USD in the Southeast Asian nation. Meanwhile, Vietnam has poured nearly 600 million USD into over 80 projects in Australia.

The third Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meeting was held last April after the Vietnam-Australia Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy was approved in 2021, putting forth measures to boost the bilateral economic ties.

Regarding cooperation in education-training, Hai said as of December 2022, the number of Vietnamese students in Australia stood at 22,000, accounting for 4% of international students in the country, making Vietnam among the top five countries sending students to Australia.

For collaboration in national defence-security, the researcher noted that the two countries have signed many cooperation documents, established mechanisms, and organised meetings at different levels, focusing on humanitarian and relief aid.

The two countries inked the Declaration on Joint Visions for Enhancing Defence Cooperation in 2018, which emphasises the expansion of cooperation in navigation and peacekeeping.

They held the first security dialogue at the deputy-ministerial level in 2018, the second in December 2019 and the third in February 2023 after more than three years of hiatus due to COVID-19, said Hai.

The researcher also emphasised the need to promote cultural exchanges in order to bring the two countries closer, and suggested Australia present Vietnam with kangaroos as a symbol of their cultural ties./.

VNA