: It is indeed an honour to host my friend Prime Minister Chinh here in Canberra. It has been a pleasure to welcome you and your delegation to Australia and to return the generous hospitality that I received in Vietnam last June. Coming together like this energises the Australia-Vietnam relationship.
Prime Minister Chinh, your visit follows what has been a very momentous Special Summit to mark 50 years of Australia's partnership with ASEAN that we held in Melbourne over recent days. Last year, Australia and Vietnam celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations. Those five decades have seen Australia and Vietnam build an enduring partnership, a friendship based on trust, mutual respect, family and community ties and a shared vision for an open, stable and prosperous Indo Pacific. Elevating our ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership today places Australia and Vietnam among each other's most significant partners. It reflects our shared ambition for the future. Today, Prime Minister Chinh and I had a productive discussion spanning the breadth of our partnership, climate change and energy cooperation, digital transformation and innovation, trade and investment, agriculture, education and defence. I'm proud that our new partnership has a specific pillar on climate, environment and energy cooperation. Both Australia and Vietnam have committed to net zero. I'm pleased today that we have agreed to establish an annual dialogue between Australia's Minister for Resources and Vietnam's Minister for Industry and Trade. This will be a platform for greater collaboration in our energy and resources sectors, including critical mineral supply chains in support of our targets. Our marine science agencies have also signed a new agreement to strengthen their ability to monitor climate change's impact on the marine environment. I am also pleased Australia and Vietnam are working together to seize the opportunities of technological transformation. Through a new pillar in our partnership, we have committed to building capacity across science, innovation and technology cooperation. Our innovation cooperation is also demonstrated by the five-year extension of our MoU between the CSIRO and Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology. Prime Minister Chinh and I discussed our shared determination to grow our trade and investment links to support both our country's economic prosperity. In 2022, the latest figures available, trade between Australia and Vietnam reached $25.7 billion. This was an increase of 75 per cent over just the two years from 2020 and make Vietnam Australia's 12th largest trading partner. My Government is already implementing the recommendations of the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, the report delivered by Mr Nicholas Moore. To strengthen business ties and grow investment between our two countries, I announced in Melbourne earlier this week, this will include extending the landing pad program supporting Australian tech companies in Vietnam to work intensively in new markets. As export focused countries, we recognise the opportunities to create jobs for Australians and Vietnamese alike. Work is being done right across the breadth of my Government to build trade and investment ties with Vietnam.
The first Annual Australia Vietnam Trade Ministers dialogue was held in Melbourne on the 5th of March Austrade and Vietrade signed an agreement to support improved promotion of trade and investment opportunities. And I'm pleased to announce that implementation arrangements have been agreed to enable 1000 Vietnamese workers to work in the agricultural sector to fill labour gaps in rural and regional Australia. Workers are expected to begin arriving this year. Our economic cooperation is also underpinned by our educational and institutional links. I'm particularly pleased that we have renewed our framework for cooperation on education, supporting more partnerships between Australian and Vietnamese education institutions. We also discuss the importance of cooperation to protect and promote regional security and stability. I'm proud today, we're announcing a new peacekeeping partnership to further our important cooperation in this field and that we have elevated the Australia Vietnam Security Dialogue to the Ministerial level to advance cooperation on law enforcement issues.
All of these initiatives are sustained and strengthened by the depth of the people to people ties between our nations. There are over 350,000 Australians of Vietnamese heritage and Vietnamese is the fourth most common language spoken at home in Australia. Our connections endure across generations and geography. Working together as Comprehensive Strategic Partners, I am confident that Australia and Vietnam can rise to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow and I ask Prime Minister to address his remarks.
HE MR PHAM MINH CHINH, PRIME MINISTER OF VIETNAM: Honourable Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, distinguished delegates, on behalf of the delegation of the Vietnamese Government, I'd like to extend my thanks to the Government and people of Australia for the warm welcome, cordial reception and the excellent sentiment and friendship extended to us. We're elated to extend our congratulations to Australia on its socioeconomic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, improving the welfare of the people, thereby contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. I'd also like to congratulate Australia on having successfully convened the ASEAN Australia Special Commemorative Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of relation between ASEAN and Australia. The Summit has a wide range of very successful agenda items, warm welcome, accent arrangements, depicting the friendship between Australia and ASEAN countries. Let me take this opportunity to appreciate the support of Australia for Vietnam's reform and integration, particularly via the provision over 26 million vaccine doses and high level of ODA to Vietnam. Especially during Vietnam's efforts to combat COVID-19, Australia has been one of the top vaccine providers to Vietnam in which and the top paediatric vaccine provider to Vietnam. Mr Prime Minister, distinguished delegates, in Melbourne, I have discussed a number of new items in the Vietnam Australia ties after 50 years of diplomatic relations and 15 years of Comprehensive Partnership, six years of Strategic Partnership and in the very successful bilateral talks today, the Prime Minister and I represented the two Governments to announce the upgrade of the Vietnam Australia ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the highest level, the highest framework of cooperation between Vietnam and a partner. This helps different cooperation, two countries fulfilling the interest of the two peoples and contributing to peace cooperation, development in the region and the world, which I can briefly summarise in six key points.
First, we are witnessing increasing political trust and diplomatic cooperation. Second, a higher level of economic trade investment cooperation with greater depth effectiveness. Third, we are bolstering cooperation in science, technology, innovation, digital transformation, green transition in a more robust manner. Fourth, the two sides also engaging in greater cooperation in culture, education, training, environment, climate action in a comprehensive and deeper manner. Fifth, People-to-people exchange connections among various generations are sincere and very much strengthened. And six, we are having greater mutual understanding in terms of defence and security with efforts towards peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
These are six points that are further strengthened in our bilateral ties as we have discussed in the bilateral talks and the upgrade of the Vietnam-Australia ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. I fully share the view from Minister Albanese and we agree on the need to further deepen regional and international cooperation. The two countries should also continue to support each other at multilateral forums, particularly the UN, ASEAN led arrangements and promote dialogue, build trust among countries, harness the centrality of ASEAN, enhance the utilisation of Mekong's separation cooperation arrangements. The two countries also hope that conflicts around the world will soon be settled via peaceful means. Humanitarian aid will be further promoted and the threat or use of force will be avoided. It is also a need for us all to respect the UN Charter and international law and protect the people so that no one is left behind. When it comes to the South China Sea, the two sides reiterate the importance of peace, stability, freedom, security, safety, freedom of navigation, of flight in the South China Sea. The need to peacefully settle disputes on the basis of respect for international law, particularly the UNCLOS of 1982. We also agree on the need to continue to exchange information, bolster maritime cooperation to make South China Sea into a sea of peace, stability, friendship, cooperation and development, thereby bringing greater benefits to the peoples in the region and relevant countries. The two sides agree to create favourable conditions to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the people and businesses of both countries residing, working and studying in Vietnam and Australia. I'd like to thank Australia for having supported Vietnamese students and nationals with the number of over 300,000 people to reside and study in Australia. We also welcome the favourable conditions that Australia has provided for these people to lead stable lives in the country. On this occasion, complete authorities from both countries have also signed eleven important cooperation documents on defence, trade, energy, education, science, technology, justice, among others. We have agreed to instruct relevant authorities to actively engage with each other in implementing these agreements and, as the Prime Minister of Australia has mentioned, from merely reaching an agreement to implementing such an agreement remains a procedure that we need to partake in in the most serious manner through meetings and discussions under flexible formats. I've also agreed with Prime Minister Albanese that we can meet with each other either through visits or on the sidelines of multilateral events, to review past efforts, decipher the reason why certain items have not been implemented and determining the way forward to implement such items in a more effective manner.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, dear Vietnamese and Australian members of the press, we are confident that with the upgrade of bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Vietnam and Australia have entered a new chapter in the history of bilateral relations with very substantive, effective and sustainable items of cooperation across the board. This will help fulfil the interest of the two peoples and actively contribute to peace, stability, cooperation, development and friendship in the region and the world.
Thank you very much.
