Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, agreed on major directions to boost the future Viet Nam-New Zealand cooperation in all fields during their talks in Auckland, New Zealand, on 13 March.

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 Viet Nam.

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 Ha Noi and the 11^th Political Consultation in New Zealand.

The two sides showed their delight at the bilateral friendship and comprehensive partnership between the two countries, towards the 10^th 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 Viet Nam 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 Viet Nam. 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 Viet Nam 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 Viet Nam 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 Viet Nam 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 45^th 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 Viet Nam’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 Viet Nam’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)