New Zealand Acting  Ambassador to Vietnam Wendy Hinton. Photo: VOV

Hinton said New Zealand and Vietnam signed the Strategic Partnership Action Plan (2021-2024) in 2020, so it’s now time for the two sides to review this plan and study the achievements to unlock the potential fields. 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Vietnam, so this is an opportunity for the two sides to discuss contents and activities for the anniversary year.

“This visit will provide an opportunity to establish connections and to enable discussions on existing cooperation, particularly in trade, finance, investment, agriculture, education, as well as defense and security. It will enable our leaders to discuss future cooperation opportunities and that we hope these will be captured in the new, fresh Strategic Partnership Action Plan and that will be replacing the one which will be concluding in 2024.”

According to the Acting Ambassador, both Vietnam and New Zealand are determined to soon achieve the two-way trade target of 2 billion USD by the end of this year. During Prime Minister Chinh's visit, the two sides are expected to sign three cooperation agreements in education, trade and economics. The Prime Minister of New Zealand also plans to make two other important announcements on cooperation with Vietnam.

Hinton talked about how New Zealand sees Vietnam's current global profile. “New Zealand sees Vietnam as an important actor in the regional and global arena. And they are constructively engaging, from our point of view, in regional and international frameworks, for example in UN peacekeeping and they have been also elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2022, which is of interest and focus for New Zealand."

"We see also that Vietnam has been visited by top leaders from 2023 that shows that Vietnam is a stable and outward-looking partner, as regarded by significant countries," she said.