Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at a press conference in Canberra on March 7 to announce the upgrade of the Vietnam-Australia relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. (Photo: VNA) Dr. Le Hong Hiep, an expert at the ISEAS – Yusof IshakInstitute of Singapore described the upgrade as a new stepforward in the ties between the two countries, affirming the importance of therelations to the external policy of each country.
The scholar noted that the upgrade was made only six yearsafter Vietnam and Australia established their strategic partnership in 2018, reflecting the strong growth of bilateral relations, and the two countries’awareness of the significance of elevating their relations to better respond tostrong geo-political changes in the region.
The lifting of relationship to the highest level will allowthe two sides to further strengthen their cooperation in the future, said Dr. Hiep,adding that the Vietnamese PM’s visit also affirmed Vietnam’s rising role andposition, while showing the increasing importance of Vietnam in Australia’sexternal policy.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tran Thi Bich from the Lee Kuan Yew School ofPublic Policy of Singapore said that among the areas of cooperation stated inthe joint statement on Vietnam-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership,political, defence, security and judicial collaboration are listed first,demonstrating increasing bilateral strategic trust in the context that the twocountries share many strategic interest and visions.
Regarding the cooperation prospects between Vietnam andAustralia after the upgrade of relations, Dr. Hiep held that there is plenty ofroom for the two sides to promote cooperation, especially in economy.
He predicted that two-way trade will continue to rise, alongwith their investment relations due to higher capacity of Vietnamese firms ininvesting abroad and Australian enterprises’ efforts to seek favourableinvestment destinations. Besides, bilateral cooperation in politics-diplomacy,security-defence will also expand within the newly-established comprehensive strategicpartnership, he said.
Meanwhile, collaboration in traditional areas such aseducation-training, labour and tourism will continue to be strengthened.Australia has provided a large number of scholarships to Vietnamese studentsand officials, he noted, advising Vietnam to strengthen partnership withAustralia in this field to enhance its human resources quality.
Dr. Bich asserted that other areas included in the jointstatement announcing the Vietnam-Australia comprehensive strategic partnershipsuch as economic cooperation, knowledge building and people-to-peopleconnection, especially human resources training, energy and technology collaboration,are areas of Australia’s strength and Vietnam’s interest. In her opinion, cooperation withAustralia will significantly contribute to Vietnam's economic development,clean energy transition and digital economy expansion.
Dr. Hiep said that the elevation of ties between Vietnam andAustralia will also create favourable conditions for the growth of theASEAN-Australia ties in the time to come. Vietnam and Australia should increaseexchange and coordination to effectively resolve regional issues of mutualconcern in ASEAN-led forums, including the East Sea issue and matters relatedto the Mekong River, supply chains, climate change response, andnon-traditional security issues such as maritime security and epidemics.
Sharing Dr. Hiep’s opinions, Dr. Bich said that Vietnam hasplayed a rising role in ASEAN. From a member that joined the grouping late andlagged behind in some aspects, Vietnam has become an active member and with significantcontributions to ASEAN activities, she said, stressing that stronger bilateralrelations with Vietnam will help Australia strengthen relations with ASEAN./.
VNA
