It is the first visit to Australia by Vietnam's top leader since he assumed the presidency in April this year, and it comes at a moment when the Vietnam–Australia relationship has genuine substance to show for itself.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to host To Lam for talks in the capital, with the two leaders expected to oversee the signing of more than a dozen new agreements spanning education, digital transformation, agriculture and healthcare.
Two Years of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
The visit falls just over two years after the two countries elevated their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 — the highest tier in Vietnam's diplomatic hierarchy, and one Canberra shares with only a handful of countries.
By most measures, the upgrade has delivered. Roughly 96% of the action items under the 2024–2027 implementation plan have either been completed or remain on track, a figure Vietnamese officials point to as evidence of sustained political will on both sides rather than a one-off diplomatic flourish.
Trade has been the standout. Two-way commerce reached 8.1 billion USD in just the first half of 2026, up close to 22% on the same period the previous year. Beyond goods and services, the partnership has broadened into defence and security cooperation, energy, innovation, and education — with people-to-people ties underpinned by an Australian population of around 350,000 people of Vietnamese heritage, one of the largest Vietnamese diaspora communities in the world.
Vietnam's largely untapped critical minerals reserves have also emerged as a point of strategic interest for Australia, itself a major global minerals producer, opening a new front for cooperation beyond the traditional trade basket.
To Lam's Australia stop is also emblematic of a broader diplomatic pattern. Since taking the Communist Party's top job in 2024, he has overseen a wave of new Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships — with France, Malaysia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and most recently the European Union — placing Australia within an increasingly dense web of Vietnam's highest-tier relationships across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
That track record gives both governments a solid foundation to build on. But the next phase of the relationship will be defined less by the breadth of new partnerships than by the depth of follow-through in a few strategically important areas. Three stand out for both long- and short-term goals of mutual benefits and strategic connection.
Deepening Maritime Security and Economic Cooperation
The South China Sea remains one of the most consequential flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific, and Vietnam sits on its front line.
Australia, as a resident maritime power with abiding interests in freedom of navigation and a rules-based order, has every reason to deepen its engagement here. Joint naval patrols and combined exercises between the Royal Australian Navy and the Vietnam People's Navy would send a clear signal of shared commitment to maritime stability, while giving both militaries valuable interoperability experience. This could be paired with structured maritime domain awareness and information-sharing arrangements — pooling satellite, radar and vessel-tracking data to help Vietnam monitor its exclusive economic zone and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. None of this need be framed as confrontational; it is squarely in line with both countries' stated support for international law and open sea lanes, and it complements the defence cooperation already flagged under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
On the economic side, expanding cooperation on port infrastructure, offshore energy and the blue economy would give the maritime relationship commercial ballast alongside its security dimension.
Vietnamese Workers and the Brisbane 2032 Olympics
Queensland's preparations for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games represent a once-in-a-generation infrastructure undertaking — stadiums, transport links, athlete villages and urban renewal projects on a scale the state has not attempted before. Australia's construction sector is already grappling with labour shortages, and Vietnam has a large, increasingly skilled workforce with proven experience on major infrastructure projects at home.
A structured pathway for Vietnamese construction workers to take up roles on Olympic-related projects, through targeted skilled and semi-skilled visa streams, would help Queensland meet its build timeline while giving Vietnamese workers access to well-paid, internationally recognised experience. Such an arrangement could be designed with proper safeguards — wage protections, accredited training partnerships, and clear pathways home or onward — turning it into a genuine mutual benefit rather than a purely transactional labour deal. It would also give the bilateral relationship a highly visible, tangible legacy project ahead of 2032, one that ordinary citizens in both countries can see and feel the benefit of.
Expanding the Work and Holiday Visa Scheme
Australia and Vietnam have run a reciprocal Work and Holiday visa arrangement since 2017, currently capped at 200 places a year for each side. Demand from young Vietnamese has consistently outstripped that cap.
Given Australia's continuing need for seasonal labour in agriculture — where farms in regional areas regularly struggle to find enough workers at harvest time — there is a strong case for expanding the scheme substantially and easing some of its eligibility requirements, such as the tertiary education prerequisite that currently excludes many capable rural applicants.
A larger, more accessible farm-work stream would ease pressure on Australian growers, generate remittance income for Vietnamese families, and deepen the people-to-people links that both governments repeatedly cite as a foundation of the relationship. It would also complement the census-night coincidence of this visit — a reminder, officials note, of just how significant the Vietnamese-Australian community already is.
A Relationship Ready for Its Next Phase
To Lam's visit is unlikely to produce dramatic headlines on its own. Its significance lies instead in consolidating a relationship that has moved from broad-based cooperation to a deeper partnership built on strategic trust. Maritime security, labour mobility tied to the Brisbane Olympics, and an expanded working holiday scheme are not radical departures from that trajectory — they are the logical next steps for two partners who have already shown, over the past two years, that they can turn diplomatic upgrades into concrete results.
