Prime Minister's working trip: Promoting Vietnam's role in multilateral relations, promoting bilateral relations

(Chinhphu.vn) - Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son recently gave an interview about Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit and official visits to Australia and New Zealand.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Could you please tell us about the results of the Special Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia relations? Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son: It can be said that this is a conference of special significance because 50 years is the "golden milestone" of ASEAN-Australia relations, from which to set out the direction for the development of relations in the new period. The conference is a testament to the growing value and importance of ASEAN. Together with the ASEAN-GCC Summit and the ASEAN-Japan Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations in 2023 and the fact that large and small partners continue to propose upgrading relations with ASEAN, the conference shows that partners increasingly value the role and position of ASEAN. The conference was a great success, with many important results. Firstly, the leaders of both sides emphasized the importance and value of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for each side as well as the region, in which political trust is increasing; Trade, economic, cultural-social cooperation... and new fields are all being implemented very dynamically and effectively. Second , promoting the 50 years of cooperation, the two sides agreed on major orientations to promote comprehensive cooperation in all fields in the coming time, namely: (i) Creating strong changes in economic cooperation, especially trade and investment, promoting cooperation in new fields such as innovation, digital economy, green transformation, energy transformation, e-commerce; (ii) Strengthening cooperation in the fields of politics-security, defense, maritime cooperation, cyber security; promoting cooperation in education, training, labor, tourism, cultural exchange, people-to-people exchange, especially between youth and young leaders of the two sides. Third , the two sides agreed to promote the culture of dialogue and cooperation, build trust and prevent conflicts, the role of international law and multilateralism in behavior and cooperation to deal with common challenges; emphasize the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety of navigation and aviation in the East Sea; peacefully resolve disputes on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The conference adopted two important documents, the "Melbourne Declaration - Partnership for the Future" and the "ASEAN-Australia Leaders' Vision Statement - Partnership for Peace and Prosperity", as the basis for implementing the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time. Could you please tell us about the participation and contributions of the Vietnamese delegation at the conference? Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son: From the beginning, Vietnam has actively and proactively participated in the preparation, agenda building and document negotiation, as well as participating in and making important contributions to the overall success of the Conference. In particular, the profound, comprehensive and strategic statements of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh were highly appreciated by the countries, both correctly assessing the level of ASEAN - Australia relations over the past 50 years, and proposing visions, future orientations and proposals and initiatives to promote relations in the coming time. The countries were impressed with the number 3s proposed by the Vietnamese Prime Minister. Those are three breakthroughs , three enhancements and three togetherness for ASEAN - Australia relations in the coming time. The three breakthroughs include breakthroughs in economic, trade and investment cooperation; breakthroughs in human resource development cooperation, especially high-quality human resources and labor cooperation; and breakthroughs in cooperation in science and technology, innovation, focusing on developing the digital economy, green transformation, emerging industries and fields such as semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence. The three enhancements include enhancing political trust, promoting the culture of dialogue and cooperation, promoting trust building and preventive diplomacy, encouraging major countries to make responsible contributions to the region; enhancing sub-regional cooperation, narrowing the development gap for inclusive and sustainable development; and enhancing cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, especially between the two sides' young generations, thereby consolidating the long-term social foundation and strong relationship. The three together include jointly building a united and self-reliant region; jointly promoting a region that respects international law and acts based on rules; and jointly building and shaping an open, inclusive regional structure, promoting multilateralism with ASEAN playing a central role. Vietnam's participation at the Conference has contributed to promoting Vietnam's role in ASEAN-Australia relations, and at the same time, through ASEAN, promoting the development of Vietnam-Australia bilateral relations in a more practical and effective manner in the coming time. On the occasion of attending the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took advantage of his time to meet with all senior leaders of ASEAN countries, Timor Leste, Australia, New Zealand and the ASEAN Secretary General. The partners all highly appreciated the role and position of Vietnam and wished to further deepen the relationship between the two sides in all areas, especially in economics - trade, science - technology, education - training, tourism, and people-to-people exchange. Could you please tell us about the outstanding results of the official visit to Australia and New Zealand by the Prime Minister and his wife? Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son: Immediately after attending the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, paid official visits to Australia and New Zealand, two of Vietnam's strategic partners in the South Pacific. The visits to the two countries were successful in all aspects, marking an important milestone in the relationship between Vietnam and the two countries. This is a practical step in implementing the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, including continuing to promote and deepen relations with partners, especially strategic partners, comprehensive partners, important partners and traditional friends. For Australia, the visit took place right after the two countries celebrated the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (1973-2023). For New Zealand, the visit took place in the context of the two countries preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (1975-2025). These are also the first visits of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to Australia and New Zealand in his new position and the first visit to Australia and New Zealand by a Vietnamese Prime Minister in 7 years. The two countries gave Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his wife and the Vietnamese delegation a warm, friendly and attentive welcome with the highest ceremony reserved for the Head of Government. The New Zealand Government also gave Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh a special ceremony of the Maori people. In Australia, the highlight of the visit was that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the upgrading of Vietnam-Australia relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The two Prime Ministers agreed to closely coordinate to implement 6 major directions, including: (i) higher and more strategic political and diplomatic trust; (ii) more inclusive, substantive and effective economic, trade and investment cooperation, taking advantage of the potential of the two highly complementary economies; (iii) promote stronger cooperation in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and green transformation; (iv) more comprehensive and profound cooperation in culture, education and training, environment, and climate change response; (v) more open and sincere people-to-people exchanges and connections between generations; and (vi) greater understanding, sympathy, and sharing of security and defense cooperation. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Governor-General David Hurley, President of the Senate Sue Lines, and Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton; and received the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Australia-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians' Association, and many other Australian leaders. The Prime Minister attended and spoke at the Business Forum, the Education Forum, the Opening Ceremony of the Australia-Vietnam Policy Institute, and visited a number of Australian scientific research and education-training facilities. The Prime Minister also received a number of overseas Vietnamese associations and met with community representatives in Australia. During the visit, ministries and sectors of the two countries signed 13 cooperation documents in various fields. Universities of the two countries also signed 9 cooperation agreements. In New Zealand , Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had in-depth talks with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and met with a number of senior New Zealand leaders. Through the visit, the two sides enhanced political trust, mutual understanding, as well as cooperation in the fields of trade, agriculture, education, people-to-people exchange, and at the same time opened up opportunities for cooperation in a number of new areas such as climate change response, digital transformation, etc. The two sides also agreed to coordinate to promote trade promotion activities to bring two-way trade turnover to the target of 2 billion USD this year and study measures to bring two-way investment to 500 million USD by 2030, pledging to cooperate to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region. On this occasion, the ministries and branches of the two sides signed three cooperation documents in the fields of education, economy - trade and finance. This is the basis and premise for the ministries and sectors of the two countries to effectively concretize cooperation in the coming years, contributing to the stable and sustainable development of the Vietnam - New Zealand Strategic Partnership. Both Australia and New Zealand highly appreciate the increasing position and role of Vietnam in the region and the world; agree to continue to cooperate and support each other at regional and international forums, for the benefit of the people, for peace, stability and development of the region and the world./.

Ha Van - Chinhphu.vn

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