Hanoi (VNA) – The Government ofAustralia hopes to boost pragmatic cooperation with Vietnam in all fields,especially economy, trade, and education-training.

Visiting Australian Governor-General PeterCosgrove expressed the wish at a meeting with Secretary General of theCommunist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi onMay 24.

He expressed his pleasure at the growingrelationship of the two countries, which was elevated to strategic partnershipin March 2018.

The Governor-General hailed Vietnam for sendingmore officers to the UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan.

He pledged to support Vietnam to run for anon-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure.

For his part, Party General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong welcomed the Governor-General to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the45th anniversary of Vietnam-Australia diplomatic ties.

He believed that the newly-established strategicpartnership framework will help deepen the bilateral cooperation in all realms.

Vietnam always backs the role of Australia inthe Asian-Pacific region and hopes the two countries will strengthencoordination in regional and international issues, he said.

He highlighted the increasing people-to-peopleexchanges between the two countries with a large number of overseas Vietnameseliving and studying in Australia.

The Party chief thanked the AustralianGovernment for its active and effective assistance for Vietnam over the pasttime, including the construction of My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges built withAustralian funding in the Mekong Delta region.

During themeeting, the host and guest also shared common viewpoints on several regionaland global matters, including the East Sea issue.

Vietnam and Australia established acomprehensive partnership in 2009 and signed a declaration on enhancing thebilateral comprehensive partnership in March 2015. The two nations elevatedtheir ties to the level of strategic partnership in March 2018 during PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s official visit to Australia.

Over the past 45 years, Vietnam and Australiahave focused on cooperation in economy and trade. Australia is now the eighthbiggest trade partner of Vietnam. Two-way trade records annual average growthof over 7 percent, reaching nearly 6.5 billion USD in 2017, a year-on-year riseof 22.2 percent.

Australia now ranks 20th among 126 countries andterritories investing in Vietnam with 412 investment projects worth 1.8 billionUSD, focusing on industry and construction, processing industry, services,education, and agro-forestry-fisheries.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is running 44 investmentprojects in Australia with total capital of 387.1 million USD, concentrating onprocessing and manufacturing industry, arts, entertainment, mining andservices. -VNA