Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison (R) and PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore in November 2018 (Photo: VNA)

In an interview granted to the press on this occasion, Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Ngo Huong Nam said Prime Minister Morrison’s upcoming trip to Vietnam soon after he had been reelected in May indicates that Australia attaches great importance to Vietnam and the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership.

Ambassador Nam said during this trip, both sides will develop enhanced Economic Intervention Strategy to realize their ambitious goal of becoming one of each other’s top 10 leading trade partners. The two sides’ active implementation of the   Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will also help boost investment and trade turnover between Vietnam and Australia.

Prime Minister Morrison’s visit to Vietnam is expected to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields including science and technology, people-to-people exchange, energy security, climate change, navigation freedom and safety, and cyber security.

Leaders of the two sides will discuss a number of issues related to regional and global strategic security. Ensuring peace, stability, aviation and navigation security in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and avoiding any unilateral actions to force, change the status quo, complicate the situations, or escalate tensions, is of mutual concern of the whole Indo-Pacific region, not only Australia and Vietnam, added Ambassador Nam.