New Zealand PM wraps up Vietnam visit

Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern left Ho Chi Minh on November 17, concluding her four-day official visit to Vietnam.

During her stay, Ardern paid a courtesy visit to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, met President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, and held talks with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Party leader Trong said he expects the visit to open up a new development stage on the ground of past achievements, including cooperation in human resources development, education and training, agriculture and rural development; while PM Ardern expressed her hoped that the visit will further reinforce the bilateral strategic partnership.

Meeting President Phuc and Chairman Hue, Ardern emphasised that as a peace-loving country, New Zealand highly values the settlement of disputes in the East Sea via dialogue and peaceful measures with respect for international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Vietnamese leaders suggested that the New Zealand PM pay attention to promoting cooperation between the two countries in the new situation, suitable to their needs, especially the exchange of delegations as well as strengthening education-training cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. They proposed that seasonal direct flights should be resumed soon.

In her talks with PM Chinh, the two exchanged ideas on the socio-economic development situation of each country, bilateral cooperation relations and regional and international issues of mutual concern. They expressed their satisfaction at the effective and substantive development of bilateral relations over the past time.

The two sides pledged to facilitate all-level visits and promote people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges. They agreed to make thorough preparations for the upcoming New Zealand visit by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

The two PMs committed to expanding collaboration to other fields, including transnational crimes, terrorism, natural disasters and epidemics, along with defence and security cooperation, and suggested the relevant ministries and agencies to step up trade promotion activities and facilitate market access for agricultural products to reach the goal of bringing two-way trade turnover to 2 billion USD by 2024.

After the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperation agreements between the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the New Zealand's Ministry of Education, and between Vietnam's Ministry of Transport and New Zealand's Ministry of Transport on civil aviation cooperation.

Within the framework of the visit, the New Zealand PM laid a wreath at late President Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, and attended the Vietnam-New Zealand Business Dialogue and an agriculture connection event (AgriConnectioNZ).

She also visited Ho Chi Minh City and joined the Women's Summit 2022 - with the theme "Women change the world", and met the business community and business women of New Zealand and Vietnam in the city.