Hanoi (VNA) – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and hisspouse began their three-day official to Vietnam on August 22 at the invitationof Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Morrison’s trip to Vietnam takes place amid the strong Vietnam-Australiarelations and high political trust via regular exchanges of high-rankingdelegations.

Vietnam and Australia officially established diplomatic ties on February 26,1973, and a comprehensive partnership in 2009. The relationship was elevated toa strategic partnership in 2018 during the official visit to Australia by PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc from March 14-17.

The two countries have effectively implemented the action programme for the2016-2019 period and are building another one for 2020-2022 to materialise thestrategic partnership.

Australia regards Vietnam as a key partner in the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN), and an effective development partner during the reformprocess.

The two sides are maintaining bilateral cooperation mechanisms, includingannual meetings at the ministerial level in such spheres as diplomacy, nationaldefence and economy, and policy dialogues in different realms.

They have fruitfully joined hands in national defence and security throughdelegation exchanges and agreements on cooperation in crime combat, exit-entrymanagement, the fight against illegal migration, information and experiencesharing, English language teaching, and visits of naval ships.

The two sides inked a memorandum of understanding on collaboration in trainingpeace-keeping forces, and bomb and mine clearance in 2016. Australia assistedVietnam in performing its tasks in the United Nations peace-keeping operationsin South Sudan in 2018.

Australia is the only country that has opened a joint transnational crimecentre in Vietnam, through which the two countries have exchanged informationand cooperated in fighting terrorism, drug crime and human trafficking.

Australia is the longest-standing dialogue partner of ASEAN (since 1974). Thetwo sides set up a strategic partnership in 2014. Australia has applaudedVietnam’s role in the region.

Vietnamese and Australian leaders have repeatedly affirmed their common visionof maintaining peace and stability in the region, including the East Sea. Theyhave also emphasised the settlement of disputes by peaceful measures in linewith international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

Currently, Vietnam is the fourth largest trade partner of Australia in theASEAN bloc, while the latter is the 7th largest of the Southeast Asian country.Two-way trade has inched up 8.8 percent each year on average. Their traderevenue grew 19.3 percent to 7.7 trillion USD in 2018, with Vietnam’s exportsvalued at nearly 4 billion USD. In the first six months of 2019, total tradevolume was estimated at 3.84 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 6.1percent.-VNA