New Zealand’s Speaker of the House of Representatives Trevor Mallard presented a gift to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at their meeting in Auckland on March 13. (Photo: VNA)

PM Phuc and Speaker Mallard expressed their delight at the development of Vietnam – New Zealand relations in recent years, notably the two-way trade which is likely to hit 1.7–2 billion USD in 2020.

They agreed to soon upgrade the bilateral ties to the level of Strategic Partnership and held that the two nations must step up practical and specific measures to boost cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, aviation connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.
The two leaders stressed the need for the two parliaments to increase the exchange of high-level visits and coordinate together in supervising the implementation of the two countries’ agreements.