Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the 40th ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.

In a statement on the trip, Prime Minister Albanese said that Vietnam is becoming an increasingly important economic and strategic partner for Australia in Southeast Asia. The visit celebrates the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries and coordinate views on new areas of co-operation in economics, trade, and other fields to make the two countries' relations stronger in the future.

Talking to the press ahead of Albanese’s trip, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski said that energy conversion and climate change are expected to be the next pillar of cooperation between Vietnam and Australia when the two countries move to upgrade their bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,  besides the current three main areas of cooperation: economics, knowledge and innovation, and defense and strategy. 

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski

Goledzinowski said the visit is not just an opportunity to look back on the last 50 years and look forward to the next 50 years of cooperation. It is also the first visit to Vietnam by Prime Minister Albanese since he took office a year ago, with a strong commitment to closer engagement in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, according to the Ambassador.

Leaders will be looking at all the different areas where they are working together, and they will be discussing the opportunity to upgrade their relationship to the next level, Goledzinowski said.

Professor Gordon Flake, Chief Executive Officer of the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia.

In a recent interview granted to a VOV correspondent in Australia, Professor Gordon Flake, chief executive officer of the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia, stated that PM Albanese's visit indicates that the relationship between the two countries will continue to grow in the future.

Talking to the VOV correspondent in Australia, Layton Pike, co-founder of the Australia-Vietnam Policy Research Institute, highlighted the importance of PM Albanese's Vietnam visit, which he believes serves to create an opportunity for the two countries’ leaders to enhance connectivity and compare notes on important issues relating to bilateral relations.

Pike emphasised that this is not the first meeting between PM Albanese and Vietnamese leaders since taking power a year ago. However, the trip is one of the clear manifestations that the Vietnamese side is at the heart of Australia's policy towards Southeast Asia.