Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon hold a press conference

NDO - On the morning of March 11 (local time), in the capital Wellington, after the official welcoming ceremony and talks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a press conference.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Christopher chaired a press conference after the talks. (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at the press conference, on behalf of the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sincerely thanked the Government and people of New Zealand for their warm and thoughtful welcome; affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to strongly promote the Strategic Partnership with New Zealand; believed that, with many good results, this visit will contribute to bringing the bilateral relationship to a new height, towards the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025, for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam always appreciates the sentiments and valuable support that New Zealand has given to Vietnam over the past nearly 50 years: New Zealand has maintained stable ODA for Vietnam; hundreds of Vietnamese resource officials have been trained in New Zealand; New Zealand experts and scientists have supported Vietnam in producing agricultural products with high export value such as dragon fruit, avocado, passion fruit, etc. Most recently, the enthusiastic support and affection that the New Zealand people have given to the Vietnamese women's football team for the first time participating in the 2023 FIFA World Cup held in New Zealand. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the two Prime Ministers had just had a very successful meeting. The two sides were pleased to see that the Vietnam-New Zealand Strategic Partnership is developing well and effectively. In the spirit of construction and cooperation, we had comprehensive discussions on areas of cooperation and proposed directions to continue to develop the Vietnam-New Zealand Strategic Partnership more strongly and deeply in the coming time. In which, the Prime Minister summarized with three pairs of keywords: "stabilize and consolidate", "strengthen and expand", and "accelerate and break through" as follows: First , stabilize and consolidate political trust, strategic trust, political and diplomatic cooperation, creating a more solid foundation for bilateral relations. The two sides will promote delegation exchanges, high-level and all-level contacts through channels and effectively implement cooperation mechanisms, including regular contacts between the two Prime Ministers and between Ministers. The Prime Minister invited and looked forward to welcoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to an official visit to Vietnam soon. Second , strengthen and expand cooperation on all important pillars of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, including economics-trade-investment, national defense and security, agriculture and people-to-people exchange. Accordingly: Strengthen economic-trade-investment cooperation; Strive to bring two-way trade turnover to the target of 2 billion USD in 2024 and soon double two-way investment through appropriate measures, including opening the market and reducing two-way trade barriers. Vietnam welcomes investment from New Zealand in various fields, especially education and training, high-quality agriculture, and renewable energy.

The two Prime Ministers hugged after the press conference ended.

Expand defense-security cooperation, effectively respond to traditional and non-traditional security challenges that are increasingly increasing in the region, including transnational crime, terrorism, natural disasters, and epidemics; strengthen cooperation in the fields of peacekeeping, maritime security, and intelligence exchange... Strengthen agricultural cooperation, including research, cooperation, and response to climate change; develop high-tech agriculture, plant breeding, and food safety management. Expand cultural cooperation, education and training, and promote people-to-people exchanges in appropriate forms. We hope that New Zealand will increase scholarships for Vietnamese students and that New Zealand universities will strengthen ties with Vietnamese universities to meet Vietnam's need for high-quality human resource development. The early reopening of direct flights will be an important driving force to expand cooperation in these areas. Third , the Prime Minister especially emphasized three areas that need to be accelerated and made breakthroughs, including: Accelerating cooperation in science and technology, innovation, developing green economy, digital economy, transferring environmentally friendly technology, reducing emissions, developing agriculture, emerging technology industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductor chips... Making breakthroughs in cooperation in marine economy, protecting the marine environment, especially in sharing experiences, building policies, and transferring technology. Accelerating cooperation in labor, vocational training, creating conditions for Vietnamese workers to work in New Zealand; building a legal framework and having appropriate mechanisms and policies to promote and manage this field well. The two sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern; agreed to closely coordinate and support each other, especially at the United Nations and forums led by ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM); strengthen dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation, effectively respond to common challenges in the region; coordinate to promote cooperation in the Mekong Sub-region. Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea; not using force or threatening to use force; resolving disputes by peaceful means on the basis of respect for international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); agreed to exchange and share information and strengthen maritime cooperation, together striving to turn the East Sea into a sea of ​​peace, stability, friendship, cooperation and development. The two sides believe that, building on the achievements, with the determination of the leaders and people of the two countries, the Vietnam-New Zealand relationship will continue to develop strongly, go into deeper substance and be more effective, bringing practical benefits to the people of the two countries as well as contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. For his part, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon expressed that the Government and people of New Zealand were honored to welcome Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-ranking delegation on an official visit, and were pleased that together with Vietnamese partners, they made political and trade commitments, thereby jointly building stability and peace in the region, signing bilateral agreements to bring benefits to the people of the two countries. He stated that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh specifically summarized the content of bilateral discussions between the two Prime Ministers; believes that cooperation between the two countries in various fields will ensure safety and security, especially trade between countries in the region. Vietnam and Asian countries are extremely important partners for New Zealand, Vietnam is one of the countries that creates a very strong momentum for development. When cooperating with Vietnam, New Zealand will increase trade opportunities as well as political commitments and order stability.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon witnessed the signing ceremony and exchange of cooperation documents between ministries and sectors of the two countries.

He congratulated the Government and people of Vietnam on their great achievements in socio-economic development. Vietnam has become a dragon. In the past 5 years, bilateral trade turnover has increased by 60%, and New Zealand people and businesses have benefited from this. New Zealand has set clear goals of bilateral trade turnover reaching 2 billion USD by 2024; discussed non-tariff issues, cooperation in agricultural development, education, tourism, etc. New Zealand recognizes that the two countries still have a lot of potential and room for cooperation, including jointly building a Net Zero plan - reducing emissions to 0, so New Zealand will invest in Vietnam in the fields of agricultural development and environmental protection to contribute to realizing this goal. 2025 marks 50 years of diplomatic relations, further strengthening the friendship between the two countries. Therefore, the New Zealand Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for his invitation to the Prime Minister and his wife to visit Vietnam, hoping that this relationship would be tightened and consolidated. On this occasion, under the witness of the two Prime Ministers, the competent agencies of the two countries signed three important cooperation documents on education-training, trade and finance.

THANH GIANG - Nhandan.vn

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