Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski. (Photo: VNA) PM Chinh and his spouse will attend theASEAN-Australia Special Summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary ofASEAN-Australia dialogue relations, and pay official visits to Australia andNew Zealand from March 5-11.
His attendance at the summit and visits will be madeat the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PrimeMinister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon.
According to the ambassador, the PM’s official visitto Australia is “incredibly important” as itcomes after the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties last yearwhen all important Australian leaders came to Vietnam.
PM Chinh is one of the threeASEAN leaders to pay an official bilateral visit to Australia next week, he said,noting that Australia highly values the importance of Vietnam as well as thebilateral relationship, which is expected to grow further followingthe visit.
According to Goledzinowski, theVietnam-Australia relationship covers all spheres, but PM Chinh’s visit willfocus on the five areas of political and strategic understanding; economy andtrade; education; energy transition and climate change; and knowledge,innovation and science.
The diplomat revealed that Australia now has a new economic policy towards Vietnam, which will beannounced by the Australian PM on this occasion, and expected to help attract moreAustralian investments to the Southeast Asian nation.
Asked about the bilateral cooperation in renewableenergy, Goledzinowski said some leading Australian companies and groups arescheduled to hold meetings with PM Chinh to talk about specific investment opportunities.
“Vietnam has amazing prospects insolar and offshore wind and other renewable energy sources. So I think there'sa great deal that Australia and Vietnam can do together,” he said.
Regarding the summit, the ambassador said Australia was the very first country to enter intoa dialogue partnership with ASEAN, and four years ago, Australia became thegrouping’s first comprehensive strategic partner.
Australia wants to further strengthen economicengagement with ASEAN, he said, noting that the bloc is now the country’s secondmost important trade partner.
“So we want to build on that. Andwe also want to build on our strategic and political cooperation in the region,”he stressed.
“For us, we talk about ASEAN’scentrality. ASEAN is at the heart of our regional strategy. And we hope thatthis summit will further strengthen ASEAN’s role inmaintaining stability, peace and dialogue in our part of the world,” theambassador said./.
VNA
