Vietnam, New Zealand share intensive, extensive relations: ambassador

Considering the Vietnamese people who used to study or travel to New Zealand crucial contributors to bilateral ties, she said her country pays great attention to Vietnamese students and hopes to see more coming to enhance mutual understanding and trust to jointly work towards the future.

In 2025, the two countries will celebrate 50 years of their diplomatic relations and five years of the strategic partnership, Beresford continued, perceiving that this milestone will herald new focal cooperation areas matching their strengths and competitive edges.

She took agricultural technology as an example, noting that New Zealand boasts world-leading agricultural technologies while Vietnam is now in need of such technologies, especially for the Mekong Delta, which is being threatened by different environmental issues.

Given this, the ambassador said, future bilateral relations should focus on the areas where the two countries could be complementary to each other.

She also expressed her hope for the connections to be expanded to new spheres such as digitalisation and aerospace technology.

Noting the bilateral trade target of 3 billion USD, Beresford said to that end, New Zealand prioritises fully realising the trade commitments between the two countries, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The countries should maximise these deals by tapping into the strengths of each side, she added.

The ambassador pledged that during her term, she will exert efforts to assist both sides’ businesses, saying she believes more New Zealand companies will come to invest in Vietnam.

Talking about bilateral agricultural cooperation, the diplomat held that new opportunities are now wide open for sustainable agriculture as consumers in particularly demanding markets like Europe and the US require origin traceability to ensure the items they buy are clean and safe. New Zealand has developed technologies necessary for meeting such requirements, and this is also what it can share with Vietnam.

Under a project worth over 6 million NZD (3.6 million USD) announced during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit in March 2024, New Zealand will cooperate with Vietnam to develop passion fruit cultivation. This project will help Vietnamese businesses export more passion fruit products to New Zealand. Earlier, the two sides reaped success in a similar partnership for dragon fruit of Vietnam, according to Beresford.