Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to pay official visit to Viet Nam

This is the first official visit of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Viet Nam since he took office. The visit comes two months after the recent trip of Australian Governor-General David Hurley to Viet Nam. 

Albanese's visit takes place at a time when the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties and the 5th anniversary of the strategic partnership.

Prime Minister Albanese, who is also leader of the Australian Labor Party, is scheduled to meet with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Nguyen Phu Trong as part of his trip. Their meeting is expected to consolidate strategic confidence and lay a ground for the bilateral relations in the coming decades.

Especially, the Viet Nam-Australia relationship is expected to be elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which demonstrates their high political trust, said Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Nguyen Tat Thanh.

The visit is expected to create a new framework for the relations in all channels and further deepen the strategic trust between the two countries, towards a common vision for the next 50 years, It will bring about breakthroughs in economic ties, and open up new cooperation opportunities in climate change response, digital transformation and clean energy, while orienting cooperation between localities of the two countries more clearly, and deepening and advancing multilateral collaboration, he added. 

The implementation of the Australia – Viet Nam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy for the 2021-2025 period has reaped specific results in trade, education-training, and people-to-people exchanges.

However, it needs more instructions of the two countries’ leaders to achieve all of the set targets, particularly in investment, labor and culture.

Therefore, the first official talks between the two PMs is hoped to outline new orientations for bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and identify cooperation priorities in the new period.

Australia is now Viet Nam’s seventh biggest trading partner. Australia has also increased official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam, as well as providing COVID-19 vaccines and support in peacekeeping and high-quality personnel training./.