Sydney (VNA) – Vietnam - Australia cooperationrelations in the past five🤪 years have grown strongly with the flexibleimplementation of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and possibly see more opportunitiesin the coming time, said Professor Carl Thayer from the Australian D♔efenceForce Academy, the University of New South Wales.

Speaking to the Vietnam News Agency about the action programme toimplement the Vietnam- Australia Strategic Partnership for the period of 2020-2023when the two countries celebrate the 5th anniversary of their strategicpartnership (March 15, 2018- March 15, 2023), the professor highlighted that thestrategic partnership focuses on three pillars - strengthening economic-tradelinkages; deepen strategic-defense-security cooperation; and building knowledge andinnovation partnerships. The first pillar of trade and investment gains the most successas the bilateral trade has continued to grow, he said, adding Vietnamese agricultural exports still need a better access to theAustralian market, he said. The second pillar of strategic-defense-security cooperationshould be deepened although the two countries have signed an MOU on defensecooperation, a joint vision statement, and joined peacekeeping activities,training programmes and ship visits, the professor said. The third pillar ofknowledge and innovation has not got off the ground, he said. In addition to the three focused pillars, Vietnam and Australiastill have many opportunities and potential for cooperation in other fieldsincluding agriculture, tourism, and climate change. As the two countries are expectedto elevate their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the professor said that they will boost cooperation intrade-investment, defense security, and climate change - a global issue. “If we do move up to a comprehensive strategic partnership, wemust elevate the foreign and defense ministerial meetings to a two-plus-twoformula. Both meet at the same time and then they meet separately. So whenVietnamese ministers come to Australia, all four meet, and then the foreign ministergoes to his counterpart and the defense minister and we look across,” he said. Commenting on the advantages and difficulties in the next phaseof the bilateral relationship, he said that strategic trust between the two countries is at a high level. Regarding difficulties, according to Professor Carl Thayer, although Vietnam and Australia have many co-strategicpoints, jointly supporting a safe regional environment and ensuring freedom ofnavigation, they have not reached a consensus in some areas. Another issue isthat the two sides need to promote the relationship to become a more reciprocaland equal relationship in the future so that both sides can benefit in allfields./.