Australia becomes Vietnam’s 7th comprehensive strategic partner

Vietnam and Australia have announced the upgrade of their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the seventh the Southeast Asian country has signed so far.

The announcement was made by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese after official talks and a welcome ceremony with a 19-gun salute in Canberra on Thursday.

Chinh is in Australia to attend a summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia relations during an official visit to the country.

The upgrade puts Australia at the same level of relations with Vietnam as China, Russia, India, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan.

The new framework will enable the two countries to enhance relations in political and diplomatic trust; economics, trade, and investment; and cooperation in science-technology, innovation, digital transformation, and green transformation.

Albanese said that with the upgrade, the two countries will deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas such as climate change response, energy transition, natural resources including critical minerals, digital transformation, innovation, trade-investment, agriculture, defense, and education and training.

The two sides have agreed to establish an annual dialogue between their trade ministers; enhance monitoring of impacts by climate change on the maritime environment; and make digital transformation, science-technology, innovation and cooperation a new pillar in bilateral ties.

Australia will receive 1,000 laborers from Vietnam to work in the agriculture sector this year.

Also on Thursday, government agencies of the two countries announced the signing of 11 agreements in a series of fields such as education; energy and minerals; science-technology; banking; peacekeeping missions; finance; agriculture; trade promotion; and corral monitoring.

Bilateral trade reached $13.8 billion in 2023, making Australia Vietnam’s seventh largest trade partner and Vietnam the other’s 10th biggest one.

Aussie firms have invested in 631 projects worth $2.04 billion in Vietnam as of February 2024, turning Australia into the 20th largest investor in the Southeast Asian country.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has 92 direct investment projects with combined registered capital of $552 million in Australia as of December 2023.

Australia is among the largest official development assistance (ODA) donors of Vietnam.