Enhancing Vietnam's position and promoting ASEAN-Australia common prosperity

At the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, from today (March 14) to March 18, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, his wife and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation began an official visit to Australia and attended the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

The official visit to Australia and participation in the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit not only demonstrates Vietnam's growing role but also contributes to strengthening the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Partnership in an increasingly practical and effective manner.

Vietnam and Australia established diplomatic relations in 1973 and in 2009, the two countries established a Comprehensive Partnership. The two countries have exchanged many high-level delegations, including an official visit to Australia by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in March 2015.

During this visit, the two countries signed the Declaration on Enhancing the Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, identifying five main areas of cooperation: strengthening bilateral relations; regional and international relations; economic growth and trade and industrial development; development assistance; promoting defense relations, law enforcement and security.

Recently, Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull attended the APEC Summit in November 2017 in Da Nang. The two countries signed the Action Plan for the period 2016 - 2019. Accordingly, Australia considers Vietnam a key partner in ASEAN.

In economic cooperation, Australia is currently Vietnam's 8th trading partner with two-way trade growing at an average of more than 7% per year. In 2017 alone, it reached nearly 6.5 billion USD. To date, Australia has 412 investment projects with a total investment capital of 1.8 billion USD, ranking 20th out of 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Australia is one of the bilateral partners providing ODA.the largest non-refundable aid to Vietnam (with more than 110 million AUD/year from 2010 to present).

In educational cooperation, Australia provides many scholarships to Vietnam and currently there are about 30,000 Vietnamese students and researchers studying in Australia.

The two countries also share common views emphasizing the importance of long-term regional and global economic integration based on trade and investment liberalization. Both countries have made efforts to negotiate and contribute to the overall success of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

In addition, both Vietnam and Australia share a common interest in maintaining security, stability and economic development in the region on the basis of respect for sovereignty and international law; and agree on the importance of multilateral institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum and the East Asia Summit (EAS).

Assessing the Vietnam-Australia cooperation relationship, Emeritus Professor Carlyle A.Thayer, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australian Defense Academy, said that there is an increasing convergence of interests and viewpoints between the two countries.

The Australia-Vietnam Strategic Partnership will enable the two countries to conduct more frequent exchanges between senior leaders; and better coordinate to deal with challenges in economic development, transnational issues, peace and security in the region and globally.

Regarding ASEAN-Australia relations, the two sides established diplomatic relations in 1974. Australia was the first country to establish an official dialogue partnership with ASEAN in all three areas: politics, economics and specialized cooperation. In 2014, Australia-ASEAN held the 40th Anniversary Summit, and upgraded the cooperative relationship to a Strategic Partnership.

In 2017, in its first Foreign Policy White Paper, Australia identified Southeast Asia as a region with profound implications for Australia’s future. Currently, according to experts, Australia’s trade with ASEAN is larger than Australia’s trade with the US.

Trade turnover between ASEAN and Australia reached over 52 billion USD in 2016, Australia is ASEAN's 7th largest trading partner, while ASEAN is Australia's third largest trading partner (after China and the EU). Notably, direct investment from Australia to ASEAN reached over 72 billion USD in 2016, ranking 6th in the list of Investors in ASEAN.

It can be said that this is an advantage for Vietnam to further strengthen relations with Australia both bilaterally and multilaterally, enhancing Vietnam's position and role in the region and internationally.

Therefore, the participation of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his wife and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit affirms Vietnam's respect for, and active and proactive contributions to, promoting the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership in a practical and effective manner, focusing on priority areas of Vietnam and ASEAN.

This will contribute to tightening and consolidating ASEAN solidarity, promoting ASEAN’s central role, creating a favorable environment for sustainable development of each country and the whole region. At the same time, it will enhance the image of a Vietnam that continues to innovate, actively and responsibly participates in regional cooperation contents and guides the future of ASEAN-Australia relations.