Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh receives  Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong (Photo: VNA)

The Sydney Morning Herald said the visit signaled a strengthening of security ties with Vietnam. Addressing an audience at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Ms. Wong said it is the new Australian government’s ambition to expand strategic, defense, and security cooperation with Vietnam, as well as to further economic engagement and innovation links.

Professor Gordon Flake, Chief Executive Officer of the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia, said that choosing Vietnam as the first destination to visit in Southeast Asia scarcely a month after Australia voted in a new government shows the importance of Vietnam in Australia's foreign policy and suggests that Vietnam and Australia will further expand their cooperation in the very near future.

Mr. Flake said, "One area which I think has expanded dramatically, an area that is deeply important to Vietnam, is climate change. Vietnam, given its geography, given its rice producing areas that have such a low elevation along the Mekong River Delta, takes climate change very seriously. I think they will find a much more proactive partner in the new government in Australia."