Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son (right) and her Australian counterpart Penny Wong at a meeting last year. (Photo: VNA) Sydney (VNA) – The official three-dayvisit, starting on August 21, to Vietnam by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, to co-chair the 5th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the two countries, shows that the Oceania nation attaches importance to the strategicpartnership with the Southeast Asian country, Nguyen Hong Hai, Senior Lecturer from VinUniversity, has said.
In an interview granted to the Vietnam NewsAgency, Hai, who is an adjunct senior lecturer of policy and politics at the Faculty of CreativeIndustries, Education and Social Justice under Queensland University ofTechnology’s School of Justice, said this is Wong's second official visit toVietnam and her 4th meeting with Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son since shebecame foreign minister in May last year.
The visit comes as the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations and five years of strategic partnership this year, he added.
Last year, two-way trade turnoverbetween Vietnam and Australia reached a new record of 15.7 billion USD, up26.91% year-on-year. Vietnam has become Australia's 10th biggest trade partner for the first time, and Australia is currently Vietnam's seventh largest trade partner.
Accordingto the expert, moreVietnamese and Australian visitors are coming in both directions. Statistics from the Ministry ofCulture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam showed that before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,Vietnam welcomed 300,000Australian visitors and 125,000Vietnamese tourists went to Australia.
Inthe first quarter of this year alone, nearly 82,000 Australian visitors arrived inVietnam, an increase of 14.4% compared to the figure in 2019, whereas the number ofVietnamese visitors to Australia made up 10% of the outbound visitors, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
To promote trade and investment to a levelthat matches up with potentials and the strategic partnership, the twocountries have signed agreements and founded several mechanisms.
Both Vietnamand Australia are members of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free TradeAgreement (AANZFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),and the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). However, what has been done thus far isinsufficient to accelerate a breakthrough in trade, business, investment, and tourism growth from both sides.
More favourable conditions and simplified customsprocedures are required to promote more liberalised flows of trade and toremove barriers that hinder thetraveling of the citizens, Hai said.
During talks in her first visit toVietnam last year, leading officials of the two ministries agreed to step up cooperation in the fieldsof tourism, education and labour in the post-pandemic era. Currently, the two countriesare finding ways to makea speedy recovery for the tourism industry which was severely affected by the pandemic while minimising the impact of the conflicts in Ukraine on trade.
According to Hai, it was necessary for Vietnam and Australia to strengthen security cooperation and bordercontrol with advanced identification technologies, and hold constructive and candid dialogues as trustedstrategic partners to address each other’s concerns.
He stressed that if the two sides adopt a visa exemption policy for each other’scitizens, it will be areal breakthrough, contributing to further strengthening the cooperationrelationship in the coming time./.
