State President Nguyen Minh Triet made the statement while receiving Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in Hanoi on April 13.

FM Rudd spoke highly of the studious spirit and high learning achievements of Vietnamese students in Australia .

There are about 25,000 Vietnamese students in Australia , and 16,000 others are pursuing their study at Australian training centres based in Vietnam , he said.

According to the FM, Australia is one the countries offering the most scholarships to Vietnamese students. In 2011, the Asia-Australia scholarship programme offered 400 of a total 5,000 scholarships to Vietnamese students.

At the meeting, President Triet also said Vietnam wanted to boost bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.

He took this occasion to express his pleasure at the developments of the Vietnam-Australia relationship in the spirit of comprehensive partnership and spoke highly of Kevin Rudd’s contributions to bilateral relations in his capacity as former Australian Prime Minister.

The President thanked the Australian government and people-to-people for their assistance to Vietnam in national construction and development, especially official development assistance (ODA), citing My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges in the Mekong Delta region as the manifestations of the friendship between the two countries.

He also asked the two countries to promote people exchanges and cultural cooperation.

President Triet reiterated Vietnam ’s policy of expanding cooperation with foreign countries in the world, including Australia , an important partner of Vietnam .

FM Kevin Rudd said Australia was willing to help Vietnam in the Southeast country’s construction and development process.

He also spoke highly of Vietnam ’s role and its position in ASEAN and the international arena, affirming that the Vietnam-Australia friendship and cooperation were not limited to the bilateral framework, but also expressed through multilateral mechanisms.

Australia wanted to coordinate with Vietnam and other partners in the region to ensure security within the East Asia Summit framework, the Australian FM said.

The same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received the visiting Australian FM, during which he spoke highly of the results of talks between the Vietnamese and Australian FMs, saying that agreements reached during the talks would mark a new step in bilateral diplomatic ties.

Vietnam wanted to boost cooperation with Australia in order to further develop bilateral relations and increase mutual understanding between the two nations and two peoples, PM said.

He also asked the two Governments and Foreign Ministries to build a consultation mechanism to boost joint programmes and projects.

FM Kevin Rudd proposed the two countries promote cooperation, especially in mining and energy./.