
Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister ofNew Zealand Jacinda Ardern left Ho Chi Minh on November 17, concluding herfour-day official visit to Vietnam.
During her stay, Ardern paid a courtesy visit to Party GeneralSecretary Nguyen Phu Trong, met President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and NationalAssembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, and held talks with PrimeMinister Pham Minh Chinh.
Party leader Trong said he expects the visit to open up a new development stageon the ground of past achievements, ꦅincluding cooperation in human resources development, education and training, agriculture and rural development; while PM Ardern expressed her hoped that the visit will further reinforce thebilateral strategic partnership.

Meeting President Phuc and Chairman Hue, Ardern emphasised that as a peace-loving country, New Zealandhighly values the settlement of disputes in the East Sea via dialogue andpeaceful measures with respect for international law, including the 1982 UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Vietnamese leaders suggested that the New Zealand PM payattention to promoting cooperation between the two countries in the newsituation, suitable to their needs,especially the exchange of delegations as well as strengthening education-trainingcooperation and people-to-people exchanges. They proposed that seasonal directflights should be resumed soon.
In her talks with PM Chinh, the two exchanged ideas on thesocio-economic development situation of each country, bilateral cooperationrelations and regional and international issues of mutual concern. They expressed their satisfaction at the effective andsubstantive development of bilateral relations over the past time.
The two sides pledged to facilitate all-levelvisits and promote people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges. Theyagreed to make thorough preparations for the upcoming New Zealand visit byNational Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
The two PMs committed to expanding collaborationto other fields, including transnational crimes, terrorism, natural disastersand epidemics, along with defence and security cooperation, and suggested the relevant ministries and agencies to step uptrade promotion activities and facilitate market access for agriculturalproducts to reach the goal of bringing two-way trade turnover to 2 billion USD by 2024.
After the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing ceremony ofcooperation agreements between the Vietnamese Ministry of Educationand Training and the New Zealand's Ministry of Education, and between Vietnam's Ministry of Transport and New Zealand's Ministry of Transport oncivil aviation cooperation.

Within the framework of the visit, the New Zealand PM laid awreath at late President Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, and attended the Vietnam-New ZealandBusiness Dialogue and an agriculture connection event (AgriConnectioNZ).
She also visited Ho Chi Minh City and joined the Women's Summit♏2022 - with the theme🐲 "Women change the world", and met the businesscommunity and business women of New Zealand and Vietnam in the city./.