Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on May 20 had a phone conversation with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, where both leaders agreed to boost economic, trade, and investment cooperation, aiming to increase bilateral trade turnover to 3 billion USD.
PM Hung praised New Zealand’s strong performance in maintaining macroeconomic stability and ensuring social welfare, and expressed high appreciation for PM Luxon’s key role in strengthening bilateral ties, especially in elevating the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in February 2025.
PM Luxon once again congratulated PM Hung on his election to the post and affirmed that Vietnam remains one of New Zealand’s priority partners. He also praised Vietnam’s impressive development as one of the region’s fastest-growing economies.
PM Hung highlighted New Zealand as a trusted partner that has long supported Vietnam in English-language training, human resources development, official training programmes, agriculture, climate change response and disaster risk management.
Building on political trust and effective cooperation, the Vietnamese leader proposed six major orientations for future collaboration, including further strengthening political trust through increased delegation exchanges, high-level contacts and bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and promoting more substantive defence and security cooperation through enhanced exchanges and stronger naval and maritime security capabilities.
The two sides agreed on the need to promote economic ties, pledging to facilitate greater market access for each country’s key products and closely coordinate in implementing major free trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area.
PM Luxon expressed support for Vietnam’s role as the rotating chair of the CPTPP in 2026.
The two leaders exchanged views on measures to stabilise macroeconomic conditions and respond to fuel price fluctuations, including appropriate fiscal policies and support measures for businesses and people.
They agreed to strengthen cooperation in climate change response, energy transition, sustainable agriculture and the development of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar power.
PM Hung proposed that New Zealand continue expanding scholarships for Vietnamese students and enhance cooperation between universities and research institutes of the two countries. He also called for efforts to establish direct flights and more convenient connecting routes between Vietnam and New Zealand to facilitate travel and people-to-people exchanges.
The two PMs shared concerns over complex global developments affecting regional economies, including Vietnam and New Zealand, leading to rising fuel and transport costs and disruptions to global supply chains.
They also underscored the importance of dialogue, international cooperation and adherence to international law in addressing regional security challenges, while agreeing to continue coordinating positions on regional and international issues of mutual concern, contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world./.
