According to a VNA special correspondent, on the evening of August 13 (local time), General Secretary and President To Lam and the high-level Vietnamese delegation left Auckland city, successfully concluding a state visit to New Zealand, at the invitation of New Zealand Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.
Seeing off the delegation at Auckland International Airport were Minister of Trade and Investment Todd McClay; Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Grahame Morton; Director of South Asia and Southeast Asia Department, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Susannah Gordon; Head of Protocol, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Sarah Walsh; New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Caroline Beresford.
On the Vietnamese side were Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Phan Minh Giang and his wife, along with a number of officials and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in New Zealand.
Within the framework of the visit, General Secretary and President To Lam met with New Zealand Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro; held talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon; met with New Zealand Parliament Speaker Gerry Brownlee; witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperation documents and met with the press; attended and spoke at the New Zealand - Vietnam Business Roundtable Conference and the Vietnam - New Zealand Higher Education and Vocational Education Forum.
At the meetings, the two sides reviewed the achievements made in bilateral relations since the two countries upgraded relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2025. The two sides agreed to continue to consolidate political trust and comprehensively develop the relationship between the two countries through strengthening exchanges and contacts at high and all levels, on the Party, State, National Assembly and people-to-people exchange channels, thereby promoting the effectiveness of policy exchange mechanisms.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon affirmed that New Zealand will continue to strongly promote cooperation in the field of trade and investment, thereby creating favorable conditions for businesses of the two countries to have opportunities to cooperate and invest in each other.
Appreciating the practical and effective support of the Government of New Zealand for Vietnam over the years, especially in the fields of agriculture and environment, General Secretary and President To Lam expressed his desire to continue to accompany in building green agriculture, low emissions, adapting to climate change, ensuring food security and increasing added value for agricultural products; building typical cooperation models on sustainable agriculture.
The two sides agreed to make education, tourism, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges an important driving force of bilateral relations. Accordingly, the two sides will expand cooperation in training high-quality human resources with qualifications, expertise and skills to meet the new development stage; promote airlines of the two countries to soon open direct flights to narrow the geographical distance between the two countries, contributing to opening up more opportunities for people-to-people exchanges and new, more substantive and comprehensive cooperation.
The two sides affirmed that they will continue to strengthen cooperation further in regional and international issues of common concern at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations. The two sides also reaffirmed the importance of upholding international law in the region and resolving disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means, in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).
