Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Ngo Huong Nam presented credentials to Governor General of Australia Peter Cosgrove in Canberra on September 13. 

Nam said Vietnam is actively working to welcome Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull to the country to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November in the central city of Da Nang. 

He asked for joint preparations for the Australia visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit scheduled for March 2018, considering it an important milestone in the year marking the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties. 

Hailing the Declaration on Enhancing the Australia-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership issued in 2015 and the Vietnam-Australia Action Programme for 2016-2019, Nam vowed to do his best to boost ties between the two countries in his new position, bilaterally and multilaterally as well as work closely with Vietnamese and Australian agencies to prepare for high-level visits and events in localities during 2018. 

Cosgrove, for his part, said Australia wants to further develop ties on bilateral aspect and regional and global issues of shared concern, towards lifting bilateral comprehensive partnership to a greater height for the sake of peace, stability and prosperity in Asia-Pacific. 

Australia is currently one of Vietnam’s leading economic partners and importers with two-way trade of nearly 6 billion USD in 2016. Meanwhile, Vietnam provides the largest source of students for Australia among ASEAN member states with more than 30,000 people. 

The two countries have actively negotiated cooperation agreements and regional and global economic linkage mechanisms such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. 

Vietnam and Australia have worked effectively at regional and global forums, particularly the East Asia Summit (EAS), the APEC, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting Plus (ADMM ), the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI), and the United Nations forums.

VNA