New Zealand and Vietnam to strengthen ties

New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters outlined ambitions for bilateral ties during his two-day visit to Vietnam starting from June 5.

“Vietnam matters enormously to New Zealand," Peters said. "Our countries enjoy broad cooperation, in such areas as defence, security, trade, education and tourism. We are looking forward to deepening this existing cooperation and expanding it into new areas such as oceans management and the green and digital economies."

In his meetings with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, and Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung, Peters discussed progressing bilateral cooperation as well as international security challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

“Enhanced air links between the two countries are vital to increasing people-to-people connections and trade and boosting the tourism and education sectors. We have discussed commencing initiatives to implement our arrangement on civil aviation cooperation as well as to improve our air services agreement,” he said.

The minister also met with New Zealand businesses based in Vietnam and discussed the opportunities that the country presents.

“Vietnam is a country of more than 100 million people, projected to be one of the fastest-growing global economies in the next 25 years. We are ideally placed to grow our trading relationship. New Zealand is already one of Vietnam’s largest suppliers of apples and dairy products and we are both working hard to achieve the two-way trade target of $3 billion in 2026 agreed by our PMs earlier this year,” he said.

This visit builds on other recent high-level engagement between Vietnam and New Zealand, following the visit of PM Chinh to New Zealand in March.

Vietnam is the first stop in a four-country trip to Southeast Asia for Peters, and will be followed by visits to Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.

"The Coalition government is seriously stepping up New Zealand's engagement with Southeast Asia, a fact reflected in the focus of the travel undertaken by the Prime Minister, myself and other senior Ministers during the first half of 2024," Peters said.

Companies and exporters from New Zealand are expected to deepen their presence in Vietnam, with the two countries having pledged to usher in a stronger flow of trade.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to New Zealand will see both countries advance cooperation across a range of fronts, including economics, trade, education, and agriculture.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) is working with leading retailers AEON and Lotte to offer New Zealand-produced food and beverages to millions of Vietnamese consumers.