(Dan Tri) – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is about to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the two countries celebrating 50 years of establishing diplomatic relations.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Photo: Australian Government).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on May 30 that, at the invitation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will officially visit Vietnam from June 3 to June 4.
The visit took place in the context that Vietnam and Australia are celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (February 26, 1973 – February 26, 2023).
After half a century, the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Strategic Partnership in March 2018.
Actively supporting Vietnam to prevent Covid-19
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the two sides maintain high-level meetings online.
During the storm and flood in the Central region (November 2020), the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia sent a letter of visit, providing emergency support of 100,000 AUD and then an additional 2 million AUD to support Vietnam in overcoming the consequences.
The two countries currently flexibly maintain over 20 bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including important mechanisms such as the annual meeting of the two Prime Ministers, two Foreign Ministers, two Defense Ministers and the Economic Partnership Conference.
The two sides cooperate well in the fields of security and defense through exchanging delegations, signing cooperation agreements, cooperating in crime prevention, immigration management, combating illegal migration, and exchanging information.
Bilateral trade turnover is impressive
Bilateral trade turnover grew well: Turnover in the first quarter of 2023 reached 3.41 billion USD, of which exports reached 1.28 billion USD and imports reached 2.13 billion USD.
By the end of April 2023, Australia had 596 investment projects with a total investment capital of 1.99 billion USD, ranking 20th/143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, focusing on processing fields.
Largest non-refundable ODA granting partner
Australia is one of the bilateral partners providing the largest non-refundable ODA to Vietnam (on average 92.7 million AUD/year in the period 2013-2019 and 78.9 million AUD/year in the period 2020-2022
Australia offers many scholarships for long-term and short-term programs for Vietnam.
The working holiday program (March 2015) allows Vietnamese citizens to travel to Australia to work and travel, and the two sides agreed to increase the limit from 200 (2015) to 1,500 people/year from September 2019.
The cooperative relationship between localities of the two countries is developing well;
The Vietnamese community in Australia has about 350,000 people (ranking 5th among foreign ethnic communities in Australia).
In the field of regional and international cooperation, the two countries cooperate well at forums such as ASEAN, EAS, APEC, ASEM, and the United Nations.