Vietnam and Australia will work on the Action Program to implement the Vietnam – Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2024 – 2028 period.
| Chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly Tran Thanh Man and Australian Senate President Sue Lines at a meeting in Hanoi on August 25. Photos: Quochoi |
It’s the affirmation that Chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly Tran Thanh Man gave Australian President of Senate Sue Lines at the meeting in Hanoi on August 26.
The visit paid by Sue Lines is viewed to concretize the implementation of the contents stated in the recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
“The delegation’s visit would help to make the recently revised Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Australia and Vietnam more concrete and encourage its implementation,” Tran Thanh Man told Sue Lines.
Echoing the Vietnamese top lawmaker, President Sue Lines said this is the second visit to Vietnam paid for by the Australian Senate and the trips have contributed to the bilateral relations and the relationship between Vietnam’s National Assembly and Australia’s Senate, especially helped share expertise in empowering women, children, and vulnerable groups.
She said Sue Lines underlined that Australia and Vietnam have emerged as each other’s most significant partners, further bolstering collaboration in novel and vital domains like digital transformation, energy, climate change, and peacekeeping.
Vietnam and Australia are working on an action plan to deepen their cooperation from 2024 to 2028, focusing on strengthening their comprehensive strategic partnership. The initiative is designed to expand collaboration across a range of sectors, including economic, security, defense, education, and climate change mitigation.
The partnership reflects both countries' desire to enhance bilateral trade, build supply chain resilience, and contribute to regional stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Vietnam and Australia have been longstanding partners, and this new action plan will aim to bring their relationship to a new level by setting clear goals and initiatives.
The cooperation plan also aligns with shared interests in regional and global frameworks, such as ASEAN and the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), both of which they are key members of.
This step follows recent high-level visits and dialogues between the two countries leaders, emphasizing their commitment to addressing global challenges, especially in areas such as climate action and sustainable development.
| Overview of the meeting. |
Growing relationship
During the discussions, Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man expressed his happiness over the 50-year history of the Vietnam-Australia relationship, citing key milestones like the establishment of a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009, a Strategic Partnership in 2018, and an upgrade to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to Australia.
“This indicates how political trust and understanding are becoming more and more strengthened, particularly as a result of ongoing delegation exchanges and high-level contacts on all channels, including the parliamentary channel,” Man emphasized.
Currently, the two nations efficiently uphold more than 20 bilateral cooperation mechanisms, yielding numerous favorable outcomes like steady trade and economic cooperation, with two-way trade turnover reaching US$14 billion in 2023. Both nations rank in the top ten trade partners of each other. Two-way trade in July of this year was $8.2 billion, a 4.7% increase from the same month the previous year.
During the discussions, Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man expressed his delight over the 50-year history of the Vietnam-Australia relationship, citing key milestones like the establishment of a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009, a Strategic Partnership in 2018, and an upgrade to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to Australia.
Both two top lawmakers acknowledged that the two nations still have a great deal of space for cooperation. They suggested that the two countries should further strengthen the recently formed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership through the exchange of high-level delegations, people-to-people ties, decentralization between localities, and connection among friendship associations.
During her visit to Hanoi in August 2024, Australian Senate President Sue Lines visited several notable places as part of her official engagements: Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum: President Sue Lines paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh by laying a wreath and offering flowers at his mausoleum. This symbolic gesture was part of her official activities to honor Vietnam’s founding leader. Temple of Literature: She visited Vietnam’s first university, the Temple of Literature, where she learned about its historical significance and connection to Vietnam’s tradition of valuing education and scholarship These visits were part of her broader mission to strengthen diplomatic ties and deepen the relationship between the two nations’ legislative bodies. The visit also included working trips to Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh, and Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on collaboration in various sectors, including trade and cultural exchanges. This reflects both countries' shared commitment to peace, stability, and development in the Asia-Pacific region. | |
