Vietnam National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (right) presents a souvenir to Australian Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski. - Vietnam News/ANN
HANOI, Feb 26 (Vietnam News/ANN): As Vietnam and Australia mark 50 years of bilateral relations, Vietnam News speaks to Australian Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski about plans to celebrate the milestone and what the future hold for the partnership between the two countries.
Reporter: How do you evaluate the relationship between the two countries over the last few years?
Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: It's a very exciting time to be Australia's ambassador in Vietnam on the anniversary of our 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. I think I can say very confidently that at no time in history has our relationship been stronger or better than it is today.
It's built on a very strong feeling of mutual trust and on practical cooperation across so many fields over so many years. And for that, I really have to thank successive Australian ambassadors and Vietnamese leaders for enabling these strong areas of cooperation to develop. And I'm thinking of defence cooperation, education, trade, and the important people-to-people links that we enjoy.
Reporter: How do you assess the results of the two country’s people-to-people diplomacy over the past 50 years?
Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: When I was in Melbourne in December with the Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, I realised that in Melbourne, Vietnamese is the second language after English.
There is a huge number of Vietnamese Australians and increasingly these young people are coming back to Vietnam to start businesses, to establish working relationships. So these people-to-people links are important. In addition to that, we estimate we have between 80,000 and 100,000 alumni here of Vietnamese students who have studied in Australia and returned to Vietnam. They are now building their careers in business, in government and elsewhere. That is an important element of the people-to-people links as well. Now that both countries are open, we've both done quite well in managing COVID, tourism will increase as well.
All of this says that there's going to be a very bright future for the two countries in terms of those people-to-people connections.
Reporter: During the visit to Australia by National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, the leaders of the two sides agreed to support the two countries in upgrading their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership at a suitable time. What is the likelihood of this happening this year especially given the 50th anniversary?
Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: I'm very optimistic. The fact that a leader as senior as Vuong Dinh Hue announced the intention when he was in Australia in December, I think is a very positive sign. As you probably know, until recently, there were only three countries that had that level of relationship with Vietnam.
Those were China, Russia, and India. And then in December, Korea was included in that list.
If we can be the next country, we'll be very happy. And I think this year we have so many high-level visits in both directions. There should be ample opportunity for that announcement.
And once we do have that higher level of relations, that will open the way to increasing cooperation in new areas. And the new areas that we are thinking about are climate change, energy transition, and some of the more high-tech areas of cooperation that I know Vietnam and Australia are both very interested in. - Vietnam News/ANN
