Forty years ago, on February 26, 1973, Vietnam and Australiaofficially established diplomatic ties, beginning a new stage in thefriendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two sides.
The ties developed rapidly and strongly since 1993 when the twocountries celebrated their 20 th anniversary of diplomatic relations.In May 1993, then Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet paid an official visit toAustralia , the first high-level visit in the history of relationsbetween the two sides.
Over the past 20 years,Vietnam and Australia have exchanged more than 20 high-leveldelegations including those of the Party, State, Government and NationalAssembly. Besides, leaders of the two countries held many meetings onthe sidelines of international gatherings such as ASEM, APEC and EAS.
In September 2009, the relationship between Vietnamand Australia was upgraded to a “Comprehensive Partnership”. TheVietnam-Australia Action Programme for the 2010-2013 period wasimplemented, further strengthening and expanding their political ties,economic and trade cooperation as well as development and technicalassistance and cooperation in a series of fields such as defence,education, the environment and people exchange.
Thetwo sides have set up bilateral cooperation mechanisms including the Joint C ommittee for E conomic and T rade C o- o p, StrategicDialogue 2+2, and Senior Consultancy on D evelopment A id.
Economic and trade cooperation has seen fast and great developmentsover the past time. In 1991, Australia was one of the countries toremove the trade ban against Vietnam . A number of Australiancompanies were recognised as pioneers in economic cooperation withVietnam such as Telstra, BHP and ANZ.
Bilateraltrade also enjoys strong growth. It grows by more than 20 percent eachyear, with two-way trade exceeding 5 billion USD in 2012, a fifteenfoldincrease from 20 years ago. Vietnam became Australia ’s 15 thlargest trading partner while the later was Vietnam’s 13 th largestin 2012. With a combined investment capital of 1.3 billion USD,Australia is the 21 st biggest investor in Vietnam .
In terms of official development assistance (ODA), Australia alwaysgives priority to Vietnam . Australia has provided 1.6 billionAustralian dollars to Vietnam to date, focusing on infrastructure,education and training, hunger elimination and poverty reduction. Amongothers, My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges are two outstanding projects builtwith Australian ODA. Australia provides 400 scholarships toVietnamese students per annum, 4,000 in total.
Relations in the fields of defence, security, and science and technologybetween the two countries have also been strengthened.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese live in Australia .Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Australians visit Vietnam every year,stimulating cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Vietnam highly values Australia’s development over the years,helping the country become a big economy in the world and play anincreasing regional and global role. Vietnam wishes to share andlearn experiences from Australia , especially in mineral exploitationand processing, scientific application in agriculture, food hygiene andsafety, and high-quality human resources training.
Based on the firm foundations of the 40-year relationship between thetwo sides and the two Governments and peoples’ determination, bilateralrelations can expect a bright future.-VNA
The ties developed rapidly and strongly since 1993 when the twocountries celebrated their 20 th anniversary of diplomatic relations.In May 1993, then Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet paid an official visit toAustralia , the first high-level visit in the history of relationsbetween the two sides.
Over the past 20 years,Vietnam and Australia have exchanged more than 20 high-leveldelegations including those of the Party, State, Government and NationalAssembly. Besides, leaders of the two countries held many meetings onthe sidelines of international gatherings such as ASEM, APEC and EAS.
In September 2009, the relationship between Vietnamand Australia was upgraded to a “Comprehensive Partnership”. TheVietnam-Australia Action Programme for the 2010-2013 period wasimplemented, further strengthening and expanding their political ties,economic and trade cooperation as well as development and technicalassistance and cooperation in a series of fields such as defence,education, the environment and people exchange.
Thetwo sides have set up bilateral cooperation mechanisms including the Joint C ommittee for E conomic and T rade C o- o p, StrategicDialogue 2+2, and Senior Consultancy on D evelopment A id.
Economic and trade cooperation has seen fast and great developmentsover the past time. In 1991, Australia was one of the countries toremove the trade ban against Vietnam . A number of Australiancompanies were recognised as pioneers in economic cooperation withVietnam such as Telstra, BHP and ANZ.
Bilateraltrade also enjoys strong growth. It grows by more than 20 percent eachyear, with two-way trade exceeding 5 billion USD in 2012, a fifteenfoldincrease from 20 years ago. Vietnam became Australia ’s 15 thlargest trading partner while the later was Vietnam’s 13 th largestin 2012. With a combined investment capital of 1.3 billion USD,Australia is the 21 st biggest investor in Vietnam .
In terms of official development assistance (ODA), Australia alwaysgives priority to Vietnam . Australia has provided 1.6 billionAustralian dollars to Vietnam to date, focusing on infrastructure,education and training, hunger elimination and poverty reduction. Amongothers, My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges are two outstanding projects builtwith Australian ODA. Australia provides 400 scholarships toVietnamese students per annum, 4,000 in total.
Relations in the fields of defence, security, and science and technologybetween the two countries have also been strengthened.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese live in Australia .Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Australians visit Vietnam every year,stimulating cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Vietnam highly values Australia’s development over the years,helping the country become a big economy in the world and play anincreasing regional and global role. Vietnam wishes to share andlearn experiences from Australia , especially in mineral exploitationand processing, scientific application in agriculture, food hygiene andsafety, and high-quality human resources training.
Based on the firm foundations of the 40-year relationship between thetwo sides and the two Governments and peoples’ determination, bilateralrelations can expect a bright future.-VNA
