During talks with General Secretary, President To Lam in Auckland today, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon affirmed that Vietnam is an important partner of New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The General Secretary, President suggested that both sides strengthen coordination, review, and effectively implement the Action Program for the Vietnam - New Zealand Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2025-2030 period.

Both sides agreed to make defense and security cooperation substantive and effective, especially in maritime security cooperation, naval vessel exchanges, and expanding cybersecurity and military medicine cooperation. The two leaders agreed to explore establishing a direct communication mechanism or a hotline for transnational crime, accelerating negotiations towards establishing a mechanism and signing a bilateral cooperation agreement.

General Secretary, President To Lam and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo: TTXVN

Affirming the highly complementary nature of the Vietnamese and New Zealand economies, both sides emphasized that trade and investment cooperation is an important pillar with significant potential, especially in agricultural, aquaculture, and seafood trade. They agreed to expand economic and trade cooperation, effectively utilizing the free trade agreements both countries participate in.

Both sides agreed to promote trade facilitation, open markets for each country's key agricultural products, reduce technical barriers, strengthen exchanges on quality standards, quarantine, food safety, and electronic certification, thereby creating conditions for businesses from both countries to invest in each other's markets.

Prime Minister Luxon affirmed that New Zealand will continue to strongly promote cooperation in trade and investment, creating favorable conditions for businesses from both countries to have opportunities for cooperation and mutual investment.

General Secretary, President To Lam expressed a desire to continue collaborating in building a green, low-emission agricultural sector, adapting to climate change, ensuring food security, and enhancing the added value of agricultural products, as well as developing exemplary sustainable agricultural cooperation models.

Sharing common national development goals for both countries based on science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, Prime Minister Luxon highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts in policy formulation and solution implementation to integrate AI in protecting data sovereignty and national digital sovereignty.

He affirmed that New Zealand will continue to share experiences in building digital government, an ecosystem for science and technology development, and models for innovation centers and startup support.

General Secretary, President To Lam holds talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on 13/8. Photo: TTXVN

Both sides agreed to make education, tourism, connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges important drivers of bilateral relations. Accordingly, Vietnam and New Zealand will expand cooperation in training high-quality human resources with the qualifications, expertise, and skills to meet a new development phase.

The two leaders also agreed to promote airlines from both countries to soon open direct flights to narrow the geographical distance, contributing to opening up more opportunities for people-to-people exchanges and new, more substantive, and comprehensive cooperation.

Ngoc Anh