Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) shakes hands with his visiting Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, Aug. 23, 2019. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his visiting Australian counterpart Scott Morrison agreed here Friday on the importance of concluding negotiations on a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year, Vietnam News Agency reported. (VNA News via Xinhua)
HANOI, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his visiting Australian counterpart Scott Morrison agreed here Friday on the importance of concluding negotiations on a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year, Vietnam News Agency reported.
RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and six countries with which ASEAN has free trade agreements -- Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
On Friday, the two prime ministers reached consensus on developing an enhanced economic engagement strategy with the aim of Vietnam and Australia becoming top 10 trade partners of each other.
They also agreed that Vietnam and Australia's plan of action for the strategic partnership for the period of 2020-2023 will focus on three priority areas, namely enhancing economic engagement, deepening strategic, defense and security cooperation, and building knowledge and innovation partnerships.
After the talks, they witnessed the signing of five cooperative deals, including those in e-government, finance and aviation service.
