The statement was recently made by Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Ta Van Thong when highlighting the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
New Zealand is one of Vietnam’s most important trade partners, and the two nations established their comprehensive partnership in 2009, with
bilateral trade reaching 2.04 billion NZD (US$1.3 billion in 2019, representing a year-on-year rise of 13 %.
New Zealand has carried an array of activities to support Vietnam in fields of its strength such as agriculture, e-government, education, and natural disaster prevention, the ambassador noted.
The seventh meeting of the Vietnam-New Zealand joint committee on economic and trade cooperation is set to take place this year, which is seen as an important mechanism for both sides to seek measures aimed at promoting the partnership in potential areas such as trade, aviation services, tourism, and education and training.
Additionally, people-to-people and cross-cultural exchanges are also prioritized fields in bilateral ties.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to make an official visit to Vietnam and attend the ASEAN-New Zealand Commemorative Summit in central Da Nang city this year.
The two countries are poised to issue a joint statement during the visit on upgrading bilateral relations to a strategic partnership with a new action plan, the Vietnamese diplomat said.
Based on the bilateral friendship and mutual trust, Vietnam and New Zealand have been closely coordinating at multilateral forums such as the UN, the APEC Forum, and the WTO, as well as in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
As New Zealand will serve as the APEC Chair in 2021, Vietnam pledges to boost coordination with the country to ensure that it will achieve success during its term, Thong added.
