Australian Governor-General’s visit holds great symbolic importance: ambassador

Hanoi (VNA) – The state-level visit to Vietnam from April 3 to 6 by Governor-General of Australia David Hurley holds a lot of symbolic importance amid the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations, said Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski.

In an interview granted to the media, Goledzinowski said it’s the third visit to Vietnam by heads of state of Australia, and he's coming to celebrate the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations. The Governor-General is only the first of a number of important visitors who will come to Vietnam this year.

The most important activities will be the high-level meetings, the ambassador said, noting that Governor-General David Hurley will be received by all the four top of the leaders of Vietnam. This will be the first State visit that President Vo Van Thuong will have received.

The diplomat said the two countries’ strategic partnership is built around practical activities, and there is a huge amount happening between Vietnam and Australia at the moment. For example, he recently met with Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan to talk about expanding cooperation in the health area, and that's true across so many sectors. 

He went on to say that since taking his office in Vietnam, he has learned that Vietnam values very much what the Vietnamese leaders called strategic trust, which he said is important.

“What that means is that in a time of change, and a time of uncertainty, where Australia and Vietnam will be facing many challenges, we have chosen each other as trusted friends, we've decided that we will work together where we can to meet these challenges together, whether they are economic challenges or security challenges, or environmental issues, we will work together in partnership in a way which reflects the warmth of the relationship between the two countries.”

The Governor-General visit will serve to really amplify that and to consolidate the strategic trust that exists between two countries, at the people-to-people level but also at the highest level, Goledzinowski added.

Talking about bilateral cooperation on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Australia relations, he said there are so many bright spots.

Bilateral trade has grown very fast in recent years, which reflects Vietnam's growing prosperity but also the complementary nature of the two economies. Australia has become Vietnam's seventh largest trading partner. 

Agricultural cooperation is also very important, not just in selling products to each other, because the two countries are in different hemispheres, north and south, there's a seasonal complementarity which facilitates trade, but also in research. In the embassy, there are two different research organisations doing a lot of cooperation with the Vietnamese side in promoting new methods of farming in Vietnam, particularly those which have a low carbon footprint, which will enable sustainability into the low-carbon economy which Vietnam is building, he elaborated.

In terms of education, there are now 300 different partnerships between Australian universities and Vietnamese institutions, and they are expanding that further.

The ambassador also highlighted defence links, including in peacekeeping, border security, and law enforcement to combat human trafficking, drugs smuggling, and a variety of other transnational crimes.

“There are so many other activities that we're doing together. But it's all built around this strong strategic trust and the strong people-to-people links between the two countries,” he added./.