On May 20, at the Government Headquarters, Politburo Member, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung had a phone call with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The two sides expressed their pleasure at the effective and substantive development of Vietnam-New Zealand relations in recent times.
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung highly appreciated New Zealand as one of the reliable partners, which has supported Vietnam very early in English language training, human resource development, cadre training, as well as providing official development support in many important areas such as agriculture, climate change response and disaster risk management.
On the basis of political trust and effective partnership, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung proposed that the two sides focus on implementing 6 major orientations in the coming time. Accordingly, the two sides continue to consolidate political trust, through strengthening delegation exchanges, high-level contacts and bilateral cooperation mechanisms; promote more substantive defense and security cooperation, through strengthening exchanges and improving capabilities at sea, naval and maritime security.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to continue to promote economic - trade - investment cooperation, striving to bring two-way trade turnover to the target of 3 billion USD; further facilitate the strengths of each country's products to access each other's markets; and closely cooperate to effectively implement free trade agreements that the two countries are joint members of, including the ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), contributing to consolidating internal strengths and economic autonomy of each country, and better responding to the fluctuations of the current situation.
The Prime Minister of New Zealand highly appreciated Vietnam's role as CPTPP Chairman in 2026 and affirmed his support for Vietnam to successfully assume this role.
The two Prime Ministers also shared the measures of each country in stabilizing the macroeconomy, responding to fluctuations in fuel prices, including fiscal policies and appropriate support policies for businesses and people.
The two Prime Ministers also agreed to strengthen cooperation in responding to climate change, energy transition, sustainable agriculture, promoting low-emission agriculture models and developing renewable energy, especially wind and solar power.
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung requested New Zealand to continue to expand scholarships for Vietnamese students, promote connections between universities and research institutes of the two countries; and at the same time jointly promote to soon have direct flights and more convenient connecting flights between Vietnam and New Zealand, in order to create favorable conditions for travel and people-to-people exchanges.
The two Prime Ministers expressed concern about the current complex developments that negatively impact the economies of countries in the region, including Vietnam and New Zealand, increasing fuel prices, transportation and disrupting the global supply chain.
