 Overview of the talks between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern.Photo: VNA |
In politics, the two sides concurred to maintain the exchanges of delegations,
especially high-level ones, while strengthening people-to-people exchanges.
In the spirit, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc invited Prime Minister Ardern to visit
Vietnam in an appropriate time, and conveyed President Tran Dai Quang’s
invitation to Governor-General of New Zealand to pay a State visit to Vietnam.
The two sides also agreed to implement the Action Programme for the 2017-2020
period in a drastic and effective manner, and soon organise the sixth meeting of
the Joint Committee on economic and trade cooperation in Hanoi and the 11th
Political Consultation in New Zealand.
The two sides showed their delight at the bilateral friendship and comprehensive
partnership between the two countries, towards the 10th anniversary of the
Comprehensive Partnership in 2019, and the 45th anniversary of the bilateral
diplomatic relations in 2020.
In defence-security, PM Ardern agreed that the two sides should implement
specific cooperation within the newly-signed Action Programme on defence
cooperation in the 2018-2021 period. The two sides need to promote affiliation
in defence industry and research, while strengthening collaboration in fighting
trans-national criminals, terrorism and drug trafficking amidst the
complicatedly changing security in the region.
In terms of economics and trade, both sides expressed their satisfaction with
positive bilateral trade growth which hit 1.24 billion USD last year – a
year-on-year rise of over 30 percent. They agreed on numerous trade promotion
activities, including the facilitation of farm produce exports, in order to
bring bilateral trade to 1.7 – 2 billion USD by 2020.
PM Phuc asked New Zealand to continue facilitating the export of Vietnamese
tropical fruits such as mango, dragon fruit, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit
and longan to its market, and expand investment in Vietnam in the fields that it
holds strength and Vietnam has demand like mining, energy, infrastructure,
hi-tech agriculture, education and finance.
Regarding official development assistance (ODA), the Vietnamese leader said he
is satisfied with the efficiency of New Zealand’s ODA projects in Vietnam. He
called for the increased provision of the assistance with the focus on
agriculture and rural development, human resources development, disaster risk
management and climate change.
The New Zealand PM took this occasion to announce two new ODA projects, namely a
three-year programme worth 1.5 million NZD (1.09 million USD) to help Vietnamese
farmers increase their income and a pilot project on renewable energy worth
500,000 NZD.
The two sides reached a consensus on intensifying collaboration in such
potential as education and labour.
They acknowledged that cooperation in education and training is growing strongly
and is one of the pillars of the bilateral relations.
They set a target to raise the number of Vietnamese students to 30 percent by
2020 through encouraging the exchange of students between the two countries’
universities.
PM Ardern expressed her delight at positive growth in bilateral tourism
cooperation, which is reflected through the fact that New Zealand welcomed
17,000 Vietnamese tourists last year.
She affirmed to maintain assistance for Vietnam in human resources training,
while backing the opening of direct air routes linking the two countries, and
committing to facilitating tourism and trade cooperation.
The two PMs affirmed to push ahead with cooperation and mutual support at
regional and international forums of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the
East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and
the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)
PM Phuc thanked New Zealand for supporting Vietnam to host the APEC 2017
successfully and become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for
the 2020-2021 tenure.
The New Zealand PM affirmed to support and closely work with Vietnam in 2020
when the Southeast Asian country will take up the role as chair of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the bloc and New Zealand
will mark the 45th anniversary of dialogue partnership and the fifth anniversary
of strategic partnership.
New Zealand will host the APEC Year 2021 and hoped to learn from Vietnam’s
experience, she noted.
The two countries agreed to jointly implement the Comprehensive and Progressive
Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CP TPP) and advocated the negotiations
of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
The PMs were unanimous to entrust ministries and relevant agencies to promote
the two countries’ relations in a deep and pragmatic manner across the fields in
addition to promoting the exchange of a roadmap for the bilateral strategic
partnership and soon elevating the bilateral relations as agreed by the two
sides.
At the end of the talks, the PMs witnessed the signing of three important
documents, including an agreement between Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and
Trade and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on economic and
trade cooperation; a deal between Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and
New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries on cooperation in food safety and
quality management; a strategic cooperation plan between Vietnam’s Ministry of
Education and Training and New Zealand educational agency on education and
training for 2018-2020.
On the occasion, PM Ardern hosted a banquet for her Vietnamese counterpart and
members from the Vietnamese delegation.
Source: VNA
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