Top legislator holds talks with Australia's parliamentary leaders

Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Tony Smith and Australian Senate President Scott Ryan welcome National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan

The Australian Senate President highlighted the significance of the visit by the Vietnamese NA leader taking place at a time when both countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations towards stronger relationships in future.

Ngan briefed the two Australian leaders on current socio-economic affairs in Vietnam, in particular its foreign policy, adding that Vietnam continues pursuing its motto of developing cooperation and friendship with other countries, and deepening tis relations with key partners, including Australia.

Impressed by Vietnam’s 6.7% GDP growth rate, the Australian House Speaker appreciated Vietnam's social welfare policy and expressed hope that Vietnam will back his nation's initiative to improve women capacity.

The two sides greatly valued the substantial and effective bilateral relations over the past years, especially since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 and the strengthened Comprehensive Partnership in 2015. It is worth noting that remarkable progress was seen in economics, trade, education and people-to-people exchange.

To continue promoting future economic cooperation, NA Chair Ngan suggested the two sides should closely coordinate to clarify "Economic partnership" mechanism under which, they will devise a cooperation plan with specific activities for medium terms from 3-5 years, especially in terms of investment, trade and ODA.

Ngan expressed her hope that Australian entewill step up investment and cooperation with Vietnam in such areas as high-tech agriculture, husbandry, energy, telecommunication, finance-banking, mining and manufacturing.

She called on the Australian side to share its management experience and transfer technologies in coal mining, red mud treatment and environmental protection to Vietnam.

She also extolled effective Vietnam-Australia cooperation across security, defense, crime prevention and anti-illegal emigration and proposed continued consultations to support each other's views at regional forums, especially at the plus ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting.

The top Vietnamese legislator praised the two countries for closer coordination at multilateral forums, and mutual support for their bid to run for membership of the important UN agencies, and thanked Australia for its support for Vietnam’s candidacy as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure.

Both sides underlined the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and maritime and aviation freedom in the region, and settling disputes through peaceful means in line with international law.

They agreed to continue fostering the relationship between the two legislative bodies, intensifying high-level exchange visits between parliamentary committees and agencies, supervising the implementation of signed cooperation agreements between the two governments, exchanging information on parliamentary activities of each country, and enhancing the role and activities of the Parliamentary Friendship Group.

On this occasion, NA Chair Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan invited the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President of Australia along with other members of parliament to attend the 26th Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) meeting to be hosted by the National Assembly of Vietnam in January next year.