Sydney (VNA) – Vietnam and Australia have reachedthe targets set in the action plan for implementing the strategic partnership inthe 2020 - 2023 period despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dr NguyenHong Hai from the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland ofAustralia.

The two countries set up the diplomatic relationship in 1973and promoted it into a strategic partnership on March 15, 2018.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency, Hai said that in theaction plan, they focus on three pillars: enhancing economic and trade connectivity,further intensifying the strategic cooperation in defence and security, andbuilding knowledge and innovation partnerships.

Assessingthe plan implementation, he held that the two countries have recordedencouraging results in economic cooperation.

Despitethe pandemic, bilateral trade in 2020, 2021 and, especially, 2022 still grewfast. It stood at 12.4 billion USD in 2021 and 16 billion USD in 2022, turningVietnam into the 10th largest trading partner of Australia, whichremains the seventh biggest one of the Southeast Asian nation. Both sides alsosigned the enhanced economic engagement strategy in 2021, helping promote thetwo economies’ connectivity.

With regard to defence and security ties, the action plan hascontinued to carry out the countries’ joint vision statement on further defencecooperation signed in 2018. They have also established and maintained manymechanisms such as the annual defence ministers’ meeting, the defence policy dialogueat the deputy ministerial level, the annual military cooperation consultation,and the diplomatic and defence strategy dialogue at the deputy ministeriallevel.

In addition, Australia has also assisted with the airlift ofVietnam’s peacekeeping force to UN missions over the last two years, Hai pointed out.

The Australian Government has also kept the commitment tosupporting Vietnam in the fields of knowledge and innovation via Aus4Innovationfor 2018 - 2022, a cooperation programme within the framework of the Australia -Vietnam innovation partnership. Its funding via Aus4Innovation has amounted to13.45 million AUD (over 8.9 million USD) so far and is set to continuefinancing the expansion of activities in this regard, especially climate changeresponse and post-COVID-19 economic recovery, preparing for the next phase ofthe programme until 2025.

However, the expert noted, some cooperation areas haven’tlived up to the countries’ strategic partnership.

In terms of the room for bilateral ties in the future, heheld that in the current context, aside from the three abovementioned pillars,Vietnam and Australia still boast numerous opportunities and much potential forcooperation in such areas as agriculture, tourism, and climate change fight.

The researcherexpressed his optimism about the prospect for lifting the current relationship to acomprehensive strategic partnership, noting the upgrade will be based on thecomprehensive partnership set up in 2009 and the strategic partnership in 2018.

When thestrategic partnership took shape in 2018, the countries mentioned thecollaboration in green economy and digital transformation, which Hai believedwill be priority fields in the coming time.

Besides,cultural diplomacy should also be viewed as a strategic area as the Vietnamesecommunity in Australia is sizeable, he added.

The expert perceived that if Vietnam and Australia implementfour pillars well, namely security - defence, innovation, education - training,and culture, they will not only harvest concrete cooperation results but also sustainablymaintain their strategic partnership, thereby helping promote each country’sstature in the region and the world./.