HÀ NỘI — At the invitation of President Trần Đại Quang, the Governor General of Australia Peter Cosgrove and his wife Lynne Cosgrove will pay a State visit to Việt Nam from Wednesday to Saturday. The visit also marks the 45th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations (1973-2018).

The visit will be an opportunity to review the robust bilateral relationship between Việt Nam and Australia, which was upgraded to strategic partnership status in March 2018 when Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc visited Australia.

During the last 45 years, Việt Nam and Australia have built a strong partnership with the establishment of comprehensive partnership in 2009. They signed a declaration on enhancing bilateral comprehensive partnership in 2015. 
Trade and economic partnership is a key component of bilateral ties, with trade revenue increasing 200 times since 1990 to reach US$6.46 billion in 2017 and expected to hit $10 billion in 2020. 
Australia currently ranks 19th out of 116 foreign investors in Việt Nam with a total investment of $1.82 billion in 396 projects. The two sides have signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and actively engage in negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). 
Australia has been a regular ODA provider in various fields, including infrastructure, poverty reduction, innovation, climate change response, gender equality and startup support. 

The two sides have also worked together on security and national defence, to fight international crime syndicates, illegal immigration, and the removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO). Australian navy ships have been paying frequent visits to Vietnamese ports with the latest call made in June last year. The Việt Nam-Australia Joint Transnational Crime Centre based in HCM City is an effort to exchange information to fight terrorism, human trafficking and drugs.

Việt Nam and Australia are close partners in both international and regional forums such as ASEAN, East Asia Summit, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the UN.

Australian tourists to Việt Nam have increased, reaching over 370,500 in 2017, making it one of the 10 leading sources of visitors to the country.

Australia is currently home to 30,000 Vietnamese students. Meanwhile, Việt Nam is also one of the five popular options for study of Australian students. 
Along with economic cooperation, Việt Nam and Australia have enjoyed effective affiliation in all fields of politics-diplomacy, security-defence, science-technology and culture-education. — VNS