Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn (right) and her Australian counterpart Penny Wong at a meeting last year. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —  The official three-day visit, starting on August 21, to Việt Nam by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, to co-chair the 5th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the two countries, shows that the Oceania nation attaches importance to the strategic partnership with the Southeast Asian country, Nguyễn Hồng Hải, Senior Lecturer from VinUniversity, has said.

Hải, who is an adjunct senior lecturer of policy and politics at the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice under Queensland University of Technology’s School of Justice, said this is Wong's second official visit to Việt Nam and her 4th meeting with Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn since she became foreign minister in May last year.

The visit comes as the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations and five years of strategic partnership this year, he added.

Last year, two-way trade turnover between Việt Nam and Australia reached a new record of 15.7 billion USD, up 26.91% year-on-year. Việt Nam has become Australia's 10th biggest trade partner for the first time, and Australia is currently Việt Nam's seventh largest trade partner.

According to the expert, more Vietnamese and Australian visitors are coming in both directions. Statistics from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Việt Nam showed that before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Việt Nam welcomed 300,000 Australian visitors and 125,000 Vietnamese tourists went to Australia.

In the first quarter of this year alone, nearly 82,000 Australian visitors arrived in Việt Nam, an increase of 14.4% compared to the figure in 2019, whereas the number of Vietnamese visitors to Australia made up 10% of the outbound visitors, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

To promote trade and investment to a level that matches up with potentials and the strategic partnership, the two countries have signed agreements and founded several mechanisms.

Both are members of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). However, what has been done thus far is insufficient to accelerate a breakthrough in trade, business, investment, and tourism growth from both sides.

More favourable conditions and simplified customs procedures are required to promote more liberalised flows of trade and to remove barriers that hinder the traveling of the citizens, Hai said.

During talks in her first visit to Việt Nam last year, leading officials of the two ministries agreed to step up cooperation in the fields of tourism, education and labour in the post-pandemic era. Currently, the two countries are finding ways to make a speedy recovery for the tourism industry which was severely affected by the pandemic while minimising the impact of the conflicts in Ukraine on trade.

According to Hải, it was necessary for Việt Nam and Australia to strengthen security cooperation and border control with advanced identification technologies, and hold constructive and candid dialogues as trusted strategic partners to address each other’s concerns.

He suggested that if the two sides adopt a visa exemption policy for each other’s citizens, it will be a real breakthrough, contributing to further strengthening the cooperation relationship in the coming time. — VNS