VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese Embassy in Australia held a ceremony to mark the 40 th anniversary of the Vietnam – Australia diplomatic ties in Canberra on February 25.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia addresses the ceremony. (Source: VNA)

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Hoang Vinh Thanh affirmed that since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties in 1973, the relations between Vietnam and Australia have seen positive development in various fields, including politics, economics, security, defence and education.

The relationship has flourished in both width and depth after the two countries established the comprehensive partnership in 2009. High-level exchanges and dialogues including visits by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Defence Minister Stephen Smith last year further deepened bilateral political and security cooperation, Thanh said.

In terms of economic relations, Australia is now the eighth largest trade partner and the 18 th biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. Two-way trade hit 5 billion USD in 2012, a fifteen fold increase from 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the people-to-people relations have laid an important social foundation to consolidate friendship and mutual understanding in all fields, such as culture, education, sports, information dissemination and trading.

Thanh said he hopes thanks to joint efforts by the two Governments and peoples, the Vietnam – Australia cooperation and friendship will continue to see strong growth.

On the occasion, Australian permanent Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese conveyed Australian leaders’ greetings to the Vietnamese Government and people.

Varghese stressed the importance of ties with Vietnam to Australia, a fact included in the “Australia in the Asian century” white paper. He affirmed that the bilateral ties are growing comprehensively in politics, trade, investment, development assistance, border security, defence, trans-national crime combat and education.

The diplomat said he believes Vietnam will keep thriving economically and play an increasingly important role in the region and international arena.

Strengthening Vietnam-Australia comprehensive partnership

Forty years ago, on February 26, 1973, Vietnam and Australia officially established diplomatic ties, beginning a new stage in the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two sides.

The ties developed rapidly and strongly since 1993 when the two countries celebrated their 20 th anniversary of diplomatic relations. In May 1993, then Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet paid an official visit to Australia, the first high-level visit in the history of relations between the two sides.

Over the past 20 years, Vietnam and Australia have exchanged more than 20 high-level delegations including those of the Party, State, Government and National Assembly. Besides, leaders of the two countries held many meetings on the sidelines of international gatherings such as ASEM, APEC and EAS.

In September 2009, the relationship between Vietnam and Australia was upgraded to a “Comprehensive Partnership”. The Vietnam-Australia Action Programme for the 2010-2013 period was implemented, further strengthening and expanding their political ties, economic and trade cooperation as well as development and technical assistance and cooperation in a series of fields such as defence, education, the environment and people exchange.

The two sides have set up bilateral cooperation mechanisms including the Joint Committee for Economic and Trade Co-op, Strategic Dialogue 2+2, and Senior Consultancy on Development Aid.

Economic and trade cooperation has seen fast and great developments over the past time. In 1991, Australia was one of the countries to remove the trade ban against Vietnam. A number of Australian companies were recognised as pioneers in economic cooperation with Vietnam such as Telstra, BHP and ANZ.

Bilateral trade also enjoys strong growth. It grows by more than 20 percent each year, with two-way trade exceeding 5 billion USD in 2012, a fifteenfold increase from 20 years ago. Vietnam became Australia’s 15 th largest trading partner while the later was Vietnam’s 13 th largest in 2012. With a combined investment capital of 1.3 billion USD, Australia is the 21 st biggest investor in Vietnam.

In terms of official development assistance (ODA), Australia always gives priority to Vietnam. Australia has provided 1.6 billion Australian dollars to Vietnam to date, focusing on infrastructure, education and training, hunger elimination and poverty reduction. Among others, My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges are two outstanding projects built with Australian ODA. Australia provides 400 scholarships to Vietnamese students per annum, 4,000 in total.

Relations in the fields of defence, security, and science and technology between the two countries have also been strengthened.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese live in Australia. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Australians visit Vietnam every year, stimulating cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Vietnam highly values Australia’s development over the years, helping the country become a big economy in the world and play an increasing regional and global role. Vietnam wishes to share and learn experiences from Australia, especially in mineral exploitation and processing, scientific application in agriculture, food hygiene and safety, and high-quality human resources training.

Based on the firm foundations of the 40-year relationship between the two sides and the two Governments and peoples’ determination, bilateral relations can expect a bright future.

Source: Vietnam Plus