Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the talks with his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern on July 22 (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern announced theelevation of their countries’ relations to a strategic partnership during theironline talks on July 22.
The strategic partnership was set up amid the45th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties as well as the positiveand sustainable development of the comprehensive partnership founded in 2009,and based on the common interest and vision and the growing mutual trustbetween the two nations.
The two PMs voiced their belief that the newpartnership will create momentum for bilateral relations to continue growing inan increasingly effective manner in all spheres, for the sake of the twopeoples and for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
PM Phuc highly valued the comprehensivedevelopment of the two countries’ friendship and cooperation over the pastalmost half a century, and appreciated New Zealand’s official developmentassistance, which he said has effectively contributed to Vietnam’ssocio-economic development in the period.
As the global and regional economy has beenheavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese leader suggested bothsides maintain the upward trend of their trade and strive to raise bilateraltrade to 2 billion USD annually at an early date.
He also asked New Zealand to open its marketwider to Vietnam’s agricultural products and share experience in building trademarksand developing value chains to help Vietnamese fruits access demanding markets.
For her part, PM Ardern congratulated Vietnam onits success in coping with COVID-19, noting both countries’ good control of thepandemic has created favourable conditions for them to soon resume connectivityand cooperation in all aspects.
She spoke highly of Vietnam’s role and activeperformance as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, as well asits contributions to UN peacekeeping activities.
The leader also thanked Vietnam for its activesupport for and contribution to the enhancement of the ASEAN-New Zealandstrategic partnership.
The teleconferenced talks on July 22 (Photo: VNA) During their talks, the two PMs agreed to assigntheir countries’ foreign ministries to build an action plan for implementingthe strategic partnership, including holding regular meetings between theGovernment leaders; organising annual meetings between ministers of foreignaffairs, national defence, and industry and trade, along with leaders of theVietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the New Zealand Police, as well asbilateral dialogue mechanisms on agriculture, maritime cooperation, and otherissues of shared concern.
They agreed to keep strengthening defence andsecurity cooperation in an increasingly substantive manner via delegationexchanges, policy consultation, visits to ports, training, and transnationalcrime fight.
The two also emphasised the resolve to improvecooperation in other fields, especially education, science-technology, andpeople-to-people exchange.
Besides, they affirmed the commitment tofostering cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums, particularlywhen Vietnam is serving as the ASEAN Chair in 2020 and a non-permanent memberof the UN Security Council for 2020-2021, and New Zealand is preparing to takeover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) chairmanship in 2021, andboth are active members of new-generation free trade agreements like theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
They underlined that Vietnam and New Zealandshare common viewpoints on and interests in many regional and internationalissues of common concern, and both support multilateralism and rules-based regionaland international order.
Continuing to voice concerns about developmentsin the East Sea, the PMs affirmed the importance of maintaining peace,stability, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight, alongwith peacefully resolving disputes on the basis of international law,especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
They stressed that the UNCLOS is the solid legalframework regulating all activities in seas and oceans, and called on partiesto respect rulings made by dispute settlement mechanisms of this convention.
On the occasion of the high-level talks andpartnership elevation, the two sides issued a joint statement on theVietnam-New Zealand strategic partnership.
They also announced four bilateral cooperationdocuments inked on this occasion, namely an arrangement on the facilitation ofcustoms clearance for agro-forestry-fishery products; a strategic engagementplan on education for 2020-2023; a memorandum of arrangement on financialcooperation; and an arrangement on cooperation in vocational education andtraining and skills development./.
VNA
