Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit was at the invitation of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Welcoming the Prime Minister and his wife at the airport: On the New Zealand side were Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee; Director of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rod Harris; New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam appointed Caroline Beresford. On the Vietnamese side were Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Van Trung; Embassy staff and Vietnamese expatriates in New Zealand.
This is Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's first visit to New Zealand, Vietnam's strategic partner, since 2020. The Prime Minister is also the first government leader to be a guest of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon since New Zealand had a new government.
The visit aims to deepen cooperation and strategic partnership, towards the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The Prime Minister is expected to meet and hold talks with senior leaders of New Zealand; attend seminars and work with many leading associations and businesses; visit and work with New Zealand science, technology and education organizations and meet the Vietnamese community.
Before the visit, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet shared that New Zealand is an important Strategic Partner of Vietnam in the South Pacific region. The Vietnam-New Zealand relationship is a bilateral relationship with a long history. Next year, the two countries will celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Over the past time, New Zealand has been a partner that has supported Vietnam's development in many areas.
Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Van Trung assessed a number of areas in which the two sides have effectively cooperated, such as agriculture and economic development, and can further develop cooperation opportunities in areas such as climate change response, green economy, digital transformation and agricultural technology.
Since the two countries upgraded their relations to a Strategic Partnership in 2020, bilateral cooperation has made positive progress. Political and diplomatic relations continue to develop well, contributing to enhancing the level of political trust, mutual respect and understanding.
Vietnam is New Zealand's 15th largest trading partner, and New Zealand is Vietnam's 38th largest trading partner. Two-way trade is expected to reach US$1.3 billion in 2023. The two countries are striving to reach the two-way trade target of US$2 billion by the end of this year.
New Zealand continues to prioritize development cooperation with Vietnam, supporting the implementation of sustainable development goals, in which its strengths are agriculture, crops, education and training, climate change management and response, poverty reduction, and gender equality.
Education and training continues to be a traditional area of cooperation and has achieved remarkable results since the two countries held the first Vietnam – New Zealand Education Forum in late 2022. There are currently about 2,000 Vietnamese students and international students studying in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced good news after talks with New Zealand Prime Minister
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