Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives at Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport on June 3, 2023. Photo by VnExpress

After arriving in Hanoi, Prime Minister Albanese bought bread at a sidewalk stall and went to a beer shop on Duong Thanh Street, Hoan Kiem District.

Prime Minister of Albanese laid a wreath to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh. Photo: VnExpress

On the morning of June 4, Prime Minister Albanese laid a wreath and entered the Mausoleum to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh, before attending an official welcome ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Presidential Palace. After that, there was a meeting with the Vietnamese women's national football team and the Australian U20 women's team at the United Nations International School (UNIS) Hanoi.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Albanese during the welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace. Photo: VnExpress

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong received leader of the Australian Labour Party and Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese in Hanoi on June 4.

Vietnam, Australia agree to lift relations to new level in future

Welcoming Albanese on his official visit to Vietnam when the two countries are marking the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, Trong affirmed the importance Vietnam attaches to the relations with Australia and highly valued the strong, substantive, and comprehensive development of bilateral cooperation over the past years.

He stressed that both countries, located in the Asia-Pacific and sharing many similarities, have enjoyed thriving relations over the last 50 years which have been expanded and become substantive in terms of politics, economy, science, technology, education - training and defence - security. In particular, people-to-people links are close with more than 300,000 Vietnamese people, including tens of thousands of students, in Australia.

Based on those conditions and the huge cooperation potential, there are bright prospect for relations between the two countries to grow further in the coming time, he opined.

General Secretary Trong highly valued the outcomes of Albanese’s visit, especially the talks and meetings with Vietnamese leaders and the important agreements reached during the trip. He described the successes of this visit and the recent trip of Vietnam by Australian Governor - General David Hurley as milestones in bilateral relations.

The Vietnamese Party leader voiced his support for the orientations for developing the countries’ ties, including lifting their relations to a new level, cooperating more fruitfully, and promoting the implementation effectiveness of agreements for the sake of the two peoples as well as for peace, cooperation, and development in the region and the world at large.

For his part, PM Albanese stated his country respects Vietnam’s role and stature along with bilateral connections, expressing his delight at the impressive achievements of their relations, which are currently a strategic partnership. He noted that he believes in the development prospects of bilateral relations and hopes to elevate those ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The PM affirmed Australia’s viewpoint on the importance of consolidating a peaceful and stable environment in the region; respecting international law, independence and sovereignty of countries, and equal relations; supporting ASEAN’s centrality, as well as the Australian Government’s policy and the Australian Labour Party’s policy of promoting relations with Southeast Asian nations.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (right) meets leader of the Australian Labour Party and PM of Australia Anthony Albanese in Hanoi on June 4. (Photo: VNA)

President Vo Van Thuong (R) and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at their meeting on June 4 (Photo: VNA)

* President Vo Van Thuong appreciated Australia's provision of stable official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam and its support in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic through timely grant of vaccines in large quantities.

For his part, Albanese affirmed that Vietnam has always been Australia's top priority partner in the region and wished to constantly develop cooperative relations with the Southeast Asian nation.

Vietnam will have a priority position in a Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 that the Australian Government is developing, he noted.

The leaders expressed their delight at the outstanding achievements of the bilateral ties across various fields, especially politics-foreign affairs, security-defence, economy-trade-investment, education-training, culture, tourism, sports, labour, science-technology, and people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges.

Albanese informed his host on Australia’s decision to grant 105 million AUD (69.51 million USD) for Vietnam serving cooperation in climate change response and energy transition; the RMIT University’s increase of investment in Vietnam to 250 million AUD; and the Western Sydney University’s granting of scholarships for Vietnamese and regional students.

The Australian PM said he welcomes the opening of more direct routes to major Australian cities by Vietnamese carriers Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet, which he said contributes to promoting economic and tourism cooperation, and exchange activities between the two peoples.

President Thuong, in turn, proposed Australia create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Australia to preserve the language, traditions, and culture of their home country, and for Vietnamese students to complete visa procedures and study. He also suggested Australia establish more branches of its major universities in Vietnam; and soon implement the revised memorandum of understanding on the Australian Agriculture Visa programme.

Vietnam is ready to provide skilled workers in the industrial, agricultural and service sectors for Australia, and welcomes Australian citizens to participate in the Vietnamese work and holiday programme, he stated.

Discussing regional and international issues, the two sides concurred to continue to support each other and work closely at regional and international forums, especially the UN, APEC, ASEAN and other ASEAN-led mechanisms. Albanese reaffirmed Australia's stance of respecting the rule of law in the region and settling disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means in conformity with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

President Vo Van Thuong (R) and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at their meeting on June 4 (Photo: VNA)​