Ambassador Phan Minh Giang: New Zealand Foreign Minister’s visit to Vietnam realizes the comprehensive strategic partnership framework
WVR - According to Vietnam's Ambassador to New Zealand, Phan Minh Giang, the visit to Vietnam by New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters is an opportunity for both sides to discuss specific measures to realize the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership across key areas.
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| New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters attends the 50th Anniversary of Vietnam-New Zealand Diplomatic Relations in Wellington on June 17, 2025. (Source: Vietnam Embassy in New Zealand) |
On the occasion of New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ official visit to Vietnam and co-chairing the 3rd Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Vietnam's Ambassador to New Zealand Phan Minh Giang gave an interview to World & Vietnam Report about this visit.
How do you assess the significance of New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ return to Vietnam and co-chairing the 3rd Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting?
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| Vietnam's Ambassador to New Zealand Phan Minh Giang. (Source: Vietnam Embassy in New Zealand) |
At the invitation of Vietnam's Foreign Minister Lê Hoài Trung, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters is making an official visit to Vietnam and co-chairing the 3rd Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting from November 25-26.
According to official information from the New Zealand government, Vietnam will be the first stop in New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ tour of several Asian countries from November 25-29, 2025. This tour reaffirms the importance of Southeast Asia as a key focus in New Zealand's overall foreign policy and makes a significant contribution to New Zealand's security and prosperity.
The official visit to Vietnam by New Zealand's Foreign Minister takes place as the two countries have recently agreed to upgrade their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in February 2025, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-New Zealand diplomatic relations (1975-2025).
Foreign Minister Winston Peters expressed his pleasure at returning to Vietnam, one of New Zealand's key partners in the region. This is his second visit to Vietnam in two years since he assumed the position of Foreign Minister in New Zealand's coalition government.
The 3rd Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting takes place 9 months after the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. What are the objectives of this meeting and what will be the focus of discussions?
The Foreign Ministers' Meeting is a regular cooperation mechanism between the Foreign Ministries of Vietnam and New Zealand, with the first meeting held in September 2022 in New Zealand.
During this official visit to Vietnam, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters will co-chair the 3rd Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting with Vietnam's Foreign Minister Lê Hoài Trung, where the two sides are expected to finalize and sign the Action Program to implement the newly established Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
On this occasion, both sides will discuss specific measures to realize the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership across key areas from political, security, and defense cooperation, maritime cooperation, to economic, trade, and investment partnerships, as well as cooperation on climate change, science and technology, education, and people-to-people exchanges.
Additionally, both sides will exchange information and views on current regional and international issues of mutual concern, as well as coordinate in regional, sub-regional cooperation, and multilateral forums.
Having reached the milestone of 50 years of diplomatic relations with ample room for cooperation under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework, what do you think Vietnam and New Zealand need to do to further develop bilateral cooperation comprehensively, deeply, and bring more practical benefits to the people of both countries?
Over the past 50 years, Vietnam-New Zealand relations have been continuously strengthened and developed, achieving many important results. However, there is still much room to expand cooperation between the two countries, requiring greater efforts and stronger actions from both sides in the future, commensurate with their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership level.
The Action Program to implement the Vietnam-New Zealand Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, once signed, needs to be coordinated and implemented soon, contributing to maximizing potential and effectively leveraging each other's strengths. Both countries need to continue to enhance and deepen existing traditional cooperation areas while striving to expand cooperation into new, high-potential areas that align with each country's interests and needs.
Political, security, and defense cooperation needs to be further strengthened, along with efforts to enhance the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, increase delegation exchanges and high-level contacts across channels, and enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, including ASEAN-led mechanisms, the United Nations, and other forums.
The two countries need to further enhance the effectiveness of economic, trade, and investment cooperation, closely linking their highly complementary economies, effectively utilizing regional FTAs that both are members of, aiming to achieve a bilateral trade target of 3 billion USD by 2026. Education and training cooperation should continue to be a priority focus in bilateral cooperation, with diverse forms, programs, and attractive scholarships to meet the demand for high-quality human resources in the new development context.
Identifying science and technology cooperation and climate change response as a new pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two countries need to promote the application of science and technology, digital transformation, providing solutions in climate change response, environmental protection, emission reduction, green transition, high-tech agriculture, renewable energy, carbon markets...
To effectively contribute to these efforts, it is essential to coordinate the early implementation of additional flight routes connecting the two countries, bringing Vietnam and New Zealand closer in terms of cooperation opportunities, enhancing people-to-people exchanges, and promoting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries to develop more robustly, deeply, and bring more practical benefits to the people of both nations.
Thank you, Ambassador!
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| Delegates attend the 80th Anniversary of Vietnam's National Day in New Zealand. (Source: Vietnam Embassy in New Zealand) |
