Sydney (VNA) - Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Nguyen Tat Thanh paida visit to the Northern Territory on July 24-25 at the invitation of ChiefMinister Natasha Fyles to discuss measures to implement the host government’s internationalengagement strategy 2022 to 2026.

In this strategy, Vietnam is identified as one of the six highpriority markets that the Northern Territory government wants to promote trade,investment and engagement.

Thanh’s trip took place in concurrence with a working visitby a delegation from the central province of Khanh Hoa led by Nguyen Tan Tuan,Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincialPeople's Committee.

On this occasion, Thanh and Administrator of the NorthernTerritory Hugh Heggie chaired an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam-Australia diplomatic ties.

Hugh Heggie spoke highly of the strong development of bilateralrelations, emphasising that the relationship with Vietnam is one of Australia'smost important, diverse and dynamic in the region.

Vietnam has been Australia's fastest growing trading partnerin recent years, especially as the Southeast Asian country has become theNorthern Territory's second largest export market for cattle, he said, addingthat the partnership has become stronger through economic and tradeconnectivity, close supply chains, peacekeeping cooperation, andpeople-to-people exchanges.

The administrator highly valued mutual visits of leaders,ministers and high-ranking officials of the two sides, and welcomed the closercooperation in many fields, including education and training. He also expressedhis delight at important contributions by the Vietnamese community to thediversity and dynamism of the Northern Territory over the past 30 years.

Welcoming the Khanh Hoa delegation, he affirmed that the freshly-signedplan on the implementation of the economic cooperation document between the People'sCommittee of Khanh Hoa province and the Northern Territory government is ofgreat significance, defining the framework for sustainable cooperation developmentin the next five years, and creating favourable conditions for the NorthernTerritory to expand opportunities for industrial diversification and businessconnectivity, and expand partnerships in agriculture, cotton farming, mining, inaddition to defence and maritime cooperation.

Ambassador Thanh said that the two sides should activelyexploit similarities in the fields of economic, trade, and tourism cooperation,and welcomed the possibility of expanding ties in culture, human resources development,energy transition, digital economy, and green development.

Within the framework of his visit, Thanh also attendedmeetings between the Khanh Hoa delegation and Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, DeputyChief Minister Nicole Manison, Speaker of the Northern Territory LegislativeAssembly Mark Monaghan, Minister for Agribusiness and Fisheries Paul Kirby, andother officials.

Natasha Fyles emphasised that Northern Territory's signingof the implementation plan for the period 2023-2028 to carry out the documentsigned in 1998 with Khanh Hoa is a landmark between the two localities on theoccasion of the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations. Shesaid she expects the two sides will develop their strengths in accordance witheach side's cooperation needs and promote the exploitation of new cooperationpotential in clean energy, renewable energy, digital transformation and environmentalprotection./.