Wellington(WNAM Monitoring): Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon identified major orientations for further strengthening cooperation in multiple areas during talks in Wellington on March 11 morning.
The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the stable and increasingly effective development of their countries’ strategic partnership in all aspects, including politics – diplomacy, economy – trade, security – defence, education – training, agriculture, and labour, especially the frequent exchanges of high-ranking delegations and the good growth of bilateral trade, by 60% during 2017 – 2022.
To further intensify multi-faceted cooperation, first, they agreed to stabilise and consolidate political trust, strategic trust, and political – diplomatic cooperation to create a more solid foundation for bilateral ties. Vietnam and New Zealand will step up mutual visits and meetings at all levels and via all channels while effectively implementing cooperation mechanisms, including regular meetings between the PMs and ministers of the two countries.
On this occasion, PM Chinh, who is on an official visit to the South Pacific nation, invited his counterpart to pay an official trip to Vietnam at a suitable time. Luxon accepted the invitation with pleasure.
The two sides also agreed to promote the fruitful implementation of the action plan for implementing the Vietnam – New Zealand strategic partnership 2021 – 2024, and soon build an action plan for the new period.
Second, the leaders concurred in enhancing and expanding cooperation in all important cooperation pillars of the strategic partnership, including economy – trade – investment, security – defence, agriculture, and people-to-people interaction.
Agreeing to foster economic, trade, and investment ties, they look to raise the countries’ trade revenue to 2 billion USD in 2024 and 3 billion USD in 2026, and soon double bilateral investment through appropriate measures, including opening markets and reducing trade barriers.
Vietnam welcomes New Zealand investment in all fields, particularly education – training, high-quality agriculture, and renewable energy, PM Chinh remarked.
At the talks, PM Luxon announced the launch of the third phase of a project on developing high-quality fruit varieties (Vietfruits) worth 6.24 million NZD (3.85 million USD) to help small-scaled passion fruit farmers and other stakeholders in value chains to increase productivity.
Amid uncertainties in the region and the world, the PM were unanimous in expanding defence – security cooperation; effectively responding to traditional and non-traditional security challenges that are increasing in the region, including transnational crimes, terrorism, natural disasters, and epidemics; and strengthening cooperation in peacekeeping, maritime security, and intelligence information so as to contribute to regional and global peace, stability, and cooperation.
