The visiting Vietnam’s Ambassador to the Cook Islands, Van Trung Nguyen, presented his letters of credence to the King’s Representative Sir Tom Marsters yesterday morning.

As part of a programme of engagements in Rarotonga he will be meeting with senior government officials and private sector aimed at deepening co-operation between the two countries in the years ahead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI) said in a statement.

Cook Islands established diplomatic relations with Vietnam in April 2022 which was followed by a meeting between leaders of the two nations in the margins of the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia in September last year. This was followed by a visit to Rarotonga for the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission by Vietnam Vice Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien in December last year.

Ambassador Nguyen met with Foreign Secretary Tepaeru Herrmann on Tuesday where the two discussed possible forward co-operation in trade, agriculture, fisheries and in the multilateral space.

“Vietnam’s shift from a centrally planned to a market economy has transformed it from one of the poorest in the world into a lower middle-income country within a generation and learning to be had from sharing of our respective development journeys,” said Herrmann. 

“Vietnam is now one of the most dynamic emerging countries in the East Asia region and our discussions with Ambassador Nguyen this week will contribute to focusing future bilateral co-operation including how we might better enable the Cook Islands to land select commodities Vietnam is globally competitive in delivering such as coffee and rice and capitalise on our respective regional leadership responsibilities as relate to the Pacific Islands Forum and ASEAN to enable greater trade and economic co-operation between our respective regions.

“In the multilateral space, we are keen to expand recently forged collaboration at UNESCO and extend collaboration to other fora including the World Health Organisation and the International Maritime Organisation to influence the international rules set by these multilateral organisations we are members of in our favour.”

During his visit Ambassador Nguyen will call on Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana and meet with representatives from Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce.

“Relations between the two governments are managed through the respective diplomatic missions in Wellington where Ambassador Nguyen is resident,” MFAI said.