President Tran Dai Quang (right) receives New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully in Hanoi on April 25. (Photo: VNA)
President Tran Dai Quang made the remark at a reception for New Zealand Foreign Minister (FM) Murray McCully in Hanoi on April 25.
On behalf of the Vietnamese State and people, President Quang warmly welcomed FM McCully's official visit to Vietnam, expressing his respect for the sentiments offered by the New Zealand government and people to Vietnam and its people.
The host spoke highly of the socio-economic and foreign affairs achievements attained by New Zealand in past years, while voicing his pleasure at the increasingly stable and solid comprehensive partnership (towards a strategic partnership) between Vietnam and New Zealand, with both sides regularly exchanging high-level delegations and meetings across the channels of Party, State, Government and National Assembly (NA).
He welcomed the New Zealand PM’s upcoming trip to Vietnam for activities during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Da Nang in November, urging both sides to agree on the time and prepare for the New Zealand visit made by Chairwoman of the Vietnamese NA, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
President Quang highly appreciated the outcomes of the talks between Deputy Prime Minister and FM Pham Binh Minh and FM Murray McCully, expressing his belief that the guest’s visit would contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries in future.
On the basis of the current cooperative fields, the State leader suggested the two sides continue implementing exchange programmes and experience-sharing activities, while calling on New Zealand to strengthen the English language, technical and peacekeeping professional training for Vietnam; improve Vietnam’s law enforcement capabilities at sea; support Vietnam to deal with the consequences of post-war bombs and mines; and expand bilateral collaboration in combating transnational crime.
Thanking New Zealand for providing past official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam , he affirmed that New Zealand’s ODA capital has been used in an effective manner, contributing actively to Vietnam’s socio-economic and high-quality human resource development.
President Quang highly valued the effective coordination between the two countries at multilateral organisations and forums such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the United Nations (UN), congratulating New Zealand on having successfully completed its tenure as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council.
He asked New Zealand to continue supporting and working closely with Vietnam in the APEC Year 2017, and backing Vietnam to become a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council (2020-2021 tenure) and take over the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.
For his part, FM Murray McCully emphasised that during his talks with Vietnamese Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh, both sides agreed to accelerate bilateral ties in all fields and set a target of elevating Vietnam-New Zealand relations to a strategic partnership in the next two or three years.
Congratulating Vietnam on its hosting of the APEC Year 2017, McCully affirmed New Zealand’s commitment to supporting Vietnam to successfully organise the event, particularly the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Da Nang, to become a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council and to take over the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.
The guest spoke highly of Vietnam’s determination to create an open and attractive business climate for foreign investors, noting that New Zealand is planning to accelerate economic, trade and investment ties with Vietnam, particularly as the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is bringing about huge opportunities.
New Zealand is interested in strengthening cooperation with Vietnam in agriculture, education-training and security-defence, and assisting the country in peacekeeping activities as well as post-war bomb and mine clearance, McCully said.
He added that New Zealand is actively expanding the imports of Vietnamese fruits and plans to officially allow the imports of Vietnam’s rambutan products into New Zealand in the near future.
