(VOVworld) – A welcoming ceremony for Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was held in Canberra, Australia, on Wednesday. Prime Minister Dung and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott then discussed ways to implement signed agreements in a number of areas. The two Prime Ministers also witnessed the signing of an agreement on bolstering the Vietnamese-Australian comprehensive partnership.

At a joint press conference after their talks, Prime Minister Dung said: “We have agreed to continued implementation of signed agreements on national defense and security, experience and information sharing, Australia’s support for Vietnam in English training and peacekeeping, and expanded cooperation in submarine rescue. Other topics for discussion included search and rescue, climate change and disaster response, disease control, counter-terrorism and human trafficking, cyber and water security. We also agreed to consult and support each other at regional cooperative mechanisms concerning national defense and security like ADMM, ADMM+, and ARF.”

Both Prime Ministers said education was vital in bilateral ties and agreed to boost cooperation in this field in the coming years. Prime Minister Dung appreciated the Australian government’s continued development assistance to Vietnam. He said both countries had agreed to boost fruit exports and facilitate their businesses in the areas of construction, processing, tourism, and husbandry. The two Prime Ministers agreed to deepen the Vietnamese-Australian comprehensive partnership and assigned both countries’ ministry of foreign affairs to develop an action program between now and 2017.

The two Prime Ministers agreed on the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and aviation and navigation safety and freedom in the East Sea based on international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as fully implementing the DOC. They also stressed the importance of developing a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). The Australian Prime Minister said Australia denounced unilateral actions to change the status quo in the region, adding that he hoped all disputes would be settled through peaceful measures and dialogue.

The two countries’ ministries and sectors also signed a number of cooperative agreements in the areas of labor, Vietnam’s UN peacekeeping participation, addressing the lasting consequences of bombs and mines, and supplementing the Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons (AAPTIP).