Vietnam and Australia is celebrating 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. (Photo: crossed-flag-pins.com)
Sydney (VNA) – With 300,000 people, the Vietnamese peoplecommunity in Australia has made significant contributions to the strong bondbetween the two countries, experts said.
In the Joint Statement on Enhancing the Comprehensive Partnership inked inMarch, 2015, both nations hailed efforts made by Vietnamese expats in Australiaand Australian people in Vietnam in developing socio-economy as well asbolstering friendship and cooperation between the two nations.
In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency’s correspondents in Sydney onthe occasion of 45th anniversary of Vietnam-Australia diplomaticrelations, PhD Mark Roberts and Nguyen Ba Khuyen, who have kept close watch onthe bilateral ties, noted that the diplomatic relations set up on February 26,1973 formed the basis for the thriving ties.
Both sides reached consensus on aid programmes based on long-term economiccooperation to support Vietnam’s socio-economic development, hunger eliminationand poverty reduction as well as enhance trade links. Thus, an array ofinfrastructure projects have been carried out in Vietnam, including theAustralian-funded My Thuan bridge, which is considered a symbol of the bilateralfriendship, and the soon-to-be-inaugurated Cao Lanh bridge, which receives 160million AUD from Australia, the country’s largest sum of aid for a singleproject in Southeast Asia.
Theexperts noted that Australia is one of the leading investors in Vietnam and thetwo nations are enjoying high growth in bilateral trade, adding that there aremany reasons to believe that two-way trade and investment ties will bestrengthened as Vietnam is working hard to fight corruption and bureaucracy.
Education is an important part in the partnership, they said, adding that thereare some 22,000 Vietnamese students pursuing study in Australia and theAustralian Government have granted a large number of scholarships to Vietnamesestudents.
The two countries lifted their ties to a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 andagreed to build a framework to to extend politic relations, promote economicgrowth and trade development, enhance cooperation in technology and step upties in defence and security.
Six years later, they inked the Joint Statement on Enhancing the ComprehensivePartnership which laid stress on the win-win relationship on economic growth,stability and regional security.-VNA
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