Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and also addressed the ASEAN - Australia Special Summit hosted by Australia in Melbourne on March 6 to mark the 50th anniversary of dialogue relations between the two sides.

The Summit presented the opportunity for leaders of ASEAN member countries and Australia to review their partnership over the past five decades and further promote cooperation in the future.

Leaders expressed their satisfaction with the fruitful cooperation between the two sides, especially since the establishment of a strategic partnership in 2014 and its upgrade to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021.

Australia is ASEAN’s first dialogue partner and one of the first to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with the bloc.

Two-way trade stood at more than $101 billion in 2022, for an increase of 20 per cent against 2021. Australia, meanwhile, poured more than $2 billion worth of FDI into ASEAN member countries, a 6.5-fold increase against 2021.

Leaders of ASEAN countries and Australia focused discussions on the future development orientations of the newly-upgraded ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). They also agreed to intensify cooperation in new areas such as innovation, the digital economy, green transition, energy transition, and e-commerce, thus turning these into new growth drivers in economic relations between ASEAN and Australia.

ASEAN welcomed Australia’s approval of an additional A$222.5 million ($145 million) for cooperation with Mekong sub-region countries, the establishment of an investment fund with capital of A$2 billion ($1.31 billion), and other initiatives to promote trade and investment cooperation with ASEAN countries in the future.

The two sides agreed to expand political and security and defense cooperation, maritime cooperation, and cybersecurity cooperation, especially within ASEAN-initiated and led mechanisms and forums, contributing to shaping the regional structure based on the rule of law with ASEAN at the center, implementing cooperative measures based on the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP).

Participants emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and safety of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, and peacefully resolving disputes based on international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982). They called for the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and efforts to soon achieve an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS 1982.

Leaders from both sides adopted the ASEAN - Australia Leaders’ Vision Statement - Partners for Peace and Prosperity, and the Melbourne Declaration - A Partnership for the Future, outlining orientations to develop bilateral ties in all areas.

Delivering an address at the Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh underlined that it is necessary to create breakthroughs and promote mutual commitments to further strengthen the ASEAN - Australia partnership.

He highlighted the close and longstanding relationship between ASEAN and Australia and Australia’s cooperation with and support for the bloc over the last five decades.

To further and more effectively promote the partnership, he proposed three breakthroughs: (i) in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, aiming to double trade turnover during the next decade; (ii) in human resources development cooperation, especially in high-quality human resources and labor cooperation; and (iii) in science-technology and innovation cooperation, focusing on developing the digital economy, the green transformation, the circular economy, and emerging sectors such as semiconductor chips and AI.

He also noted that the two sides must strengthen political trust and cooperation in ensuring global peace and security, promote cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and leverage the strengths of over 1 million people of ASEAN-origin in Australia, including over 350,000 overseas Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese leader said ASEAN and Australia should join hands to promote a region that respects and acts under international law, with countries complying with the UN Charter and international law, and respecting ASEAN’s principles and codes of conduct (COC), and accelerate the building of new ones, including a practical and effective COC in the East Sea that makes the East Sea become waters of peace, stability, cooperation, and development.