Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (R) and Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. (Photo: VNA)

At a reception in Hanoi on November 14 for Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, the Party chief also highlighted Viet Nam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation of ties, active and proactive global integration.

He spoke highly the results of the earlier talks between PM Ardern and PM Pham Minh Chinh in order to enhance political and economic ties, people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in various areas, as well as the signing of cooperation agreements.

Having highly evaluated the development of the bilateral relations, especially the upgrade of the relationship to a strategic partnership in 2020, the Party General Secretary thanked New Zealand for offering support to Viet Nam over the past years, including the deployment of the Viet Nam-New Zealand Action Programme for the 2021-2024 period and the fight against COVID-19.

He expected that the visit would open up a new development stage on the back of the past achievements, including cooperation in human resource development, education-training, agriculture and rural development.

PM Ardern, for her part, also hoped that the visit would further reinforce the bilateral strategic partnership.

She stressed that the rapid development of economic and trade ties and people-to-people exchanges is evidenced by the arrivals of over 40,000 New Zealanders in Viet Nam before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and the presence of Vietnamese people living and working in New Zealand.

The PM highly appreciated similarities in the two countries’ foreign policies of peace loving, independence and self-reliance and peaceful settlement of disputes and differences.

On regional and global issues of shared concern, the two leaders underscored the importance of strengthening trust, dialogue, friendly cooperation and goodwill in seeking solutions to global issues, and enhancing coordination in global issues and at multilateral forums for peace and cooperation in the region and the world./.