Vietnam and New Zealand have agreed to further advance their comprehensive partnership in politics, economics-trade-investment, national defence-security, education-training, official development assistance (ODA), labour and agriculture.

It was set at the ninth political consultation between the two countries in Wellington , the capital city of New Zealand, on July 11 under the chair of Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh and New Zealand Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Andrea Smith.

The two sides also reached a consensus on devising the 2013-2016 Action Programme and preparations for the upcoming high-level visits of the two countries’ leaders.

They noted with pleasure the fine development of their bilateral comprehensive partnership over the past time, citing the regular exchanges of high-level delegations like Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s New Zealand visit in April 2012 and New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s visit to Vietnam in November 2012.

Two-way trade rises each year, hitting nearly 600 million USD in 2012. New Zealand now invests in 18 projects worth over 76.3 million USD in Vietnam . Its ODA to Vietnam continues to grow steadily over the years, running to the tune of 10.5 million NZD in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Other positive developments are seen in national defence-security, education-training and labour, which are attributable to the implementation of the 2010-2013 Action Programme.

After exchanging regional and global issues of mutual interest, the two officials vowed to enhance Vietnam-New Zealand cooperation at global and regional forums like the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the United Nations.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides voiced their support for maintaining peace, stability, maritime security and safety in the East Sea , and the peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They also expressed their wish to formulate a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) soon.

Both sides expressed their satisfaction with the close and effective links between the two ministries of foreign affairs. They pledged to maintain the political consultation mechanism and conduct the 10 th political meeting in Vietnam.

Earlier on the same day, Deputy FM Vinh had a courtesy meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. While receiving Deputy FM Vinh, Minister McCully said the two nations have much potential to boost cooperation, particularly in trade, education-training, agriculture, aviation and tourism.-VNA