ASEAN's central role in Australian policy
The Special Summit, which takes place from 4-6 March, is a significant milestone in Australia’s shared history with the region. It demonstrates Australia’s commitment to strengthening cooperation with Southeast Asia. This is the second time Australia has hosted ASEAN leaders since the first ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in 2018.
The special summit will focus on four key areas: business, emerging leadership, climate and clean energy, and maritime cooperation.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh arrived in Melbourne last night (local time)
The Business CEO Forum will bring together Australian and Southeast Asian business leaders, industry stakeholders and government agencies to discuss ways to enhance two-way trade and investment.
The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Conference, together with the SME Marketplace, brings together trade and investment experts to provide advice to Australian SMEs interested in doing business with the Southeast Asian region.
The next generation of leaders from Australia and ASEAN will participate in the Emerging Leaders Dialogue, which seeks to promote a shared understanding of the key long-term challenges facing ASEAN and Australia, and identify areas where the two sides can cooperate further.
The Climate and Clean Energy Forum will bring together ASEAN and Australian representatives from governments, academia, experts and the private sector to promote the exchange of ideas and examine opportunities to further the energy transition across the region.
Referring to the importance of the Special Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet said: This conference is expected to be a good opportunity for ASEAN and Australian senior leaders to look back and comprehensively assess the relationship between the two sides over the past 50 years, especially the implementation process of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Australia established from 2021 to present.
"At the same time, this is also an opportunity for leaders of both sides to discuss, propose visions, directions and specific measures to expand cooperation in the coming time. It is expected that the two sides, especially the Australian side, will discuss and propose new cooperation initiatives. Therefore, we expect there will be breakthrough initiatives, contributing to creating more resources and foundations for ASEAN - Australia relations to develop more strongly in the coming time," said Mr. Viet.
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski shared that ASEAN is currently Australia's second largest important trading partner, even larger than South Korea, Japan and the US.
At this summit, leaders will discuss ASEAN centrality. Currently, ASEAN plays a central role in Australia's regional strategic policy.
On a per capita basis, Australia is ASEAN’s largest development partner. This includes supporting ASEAN-led projects to address complex regional challenges, such as the development of an ASEAN Strategy for Carbon Neutrality.
5 key areas to promote Vietnam - Australia relations
According to Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski, the focus areas of the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Summit also reflect the shared priorities of the Australia-Vietnam relationship. Accordingly, the Summit also provides special opportunities to highlight people-to-people exchanges. Australia and Vietnam are connected through human and family ties. Vietnamese is the fourth most commonly spoken language in Australia, and Australia has more than 350,000 people of Vietnamese origin, contributing to Australia's cultural diversity.
Sharing about priority areas of cooperation between the two countries, Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski said that the Vietnam-Australia bilateral relationship is developing in all areas, but there are 5 special areas of cooperation that will be the focus of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit.
The first is to strengthen political and strategic cooperation. Vietnam and Australia share many similar views, such as regional self-reliance, respect for international law and support for a free and open region. The Ambassador said that Vietnam has always been a strong supporter of independence, sovereignty and the rule of law. These are common interests that the two countries share.
The second is economic and trade cooperation. Accordingly, Australia will implement a new economic policy for Vietnam that the two Prime Ministers will decide on during the official talks scheduled to take place on March 7. This policy is expected to attract more Australian investment to Vietnam.
Third is educational cooperation, Australia is an important partner of Vietnam and there is still much room to promote cooperation in this field. During this official visit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will attend a roundtable conference on education in Canberra, attracting the participation of all major Australian universities.
Fourth is the energy transition and climate change response. Prime Minister Albanese announced a $105 million support package to Vietnam to help accelerate this important transition during his visit to Vietnam last year. Also in 2023, during Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s visit to Vietnam, Australia announced an additional $95 million to enhance climate adaptation in the Mekong region.
The fifth is cooperation in the fields of knowledge sharing, innovation and science.
In addition to the five special areas of cooperation mentioned above, Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski also said that the two countries have a lot of room for cooperation in areas such as green transition and emission reduction. Both countries are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and need to strengthen cooperation to achieve that goal.
In addition to emphasizing trade and investment promotion goals, a special highlight of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit this time will be expanding cooperation in education and training, including vocational training; expanding cooperation in science and technology, innovation, taking advantage of new current driving forces, especially in digital economy, green economy and energy transition, and developing renewable energy in Vietnam. Along with that, Vietnam and Australia will aim to bring bilateral relations to a new level.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet
Australia is one of the largest bilateral partners providing non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam (an average of AUD 92.7 million/year from 2013 to 2019 and AUD 78.9 million/year in 2020 to 2022). In October 2022, Australia increased ODA to Vietnam by 18%, to AUD 92.8 million in 2022 to 2023. In May 2023, it continued to increase by 2.5% to AUD 95.1 million. In the 50 years since establishing diplomatic relations, Australia has provided Vietnam with a total of AUD 3 billion in ODA.
Australia invests AUD 64 million in ASEAN maritime security
Yesterday (March 4), Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Canberra government will invest 64 million AUD (41.73 million USD) in maritime security agreements with ASEAN countries over the next 4 years.
Foreign Minister Wong made the announcement at the opening of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne on March 4, according to Reuters. The summit, which runs until March 6, marks 50 years since Australia became ASEAN's first dialogue partner in 1974.
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