Vietnam’s President To Lam will next week embark on state visits to Australia and New Zealand, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
In a statement, it announced that Lam, who also serves as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), would travel to the two nations from August 9 to 14, but did not specify the exact itinerary.
The trip, which has been rumored for several weeks, was confirmed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office, which said that Lam would be in Australia on August 9-12 and would meet with Albanese on August 11 in order “to discuss opportunities to deepen cooperation.”
“I look forward to welcoming General Secretary and President To Lam to Australia and discussing how we can strengthen cooperation between our two nations,” Albanese said in the statement. “The Vietnam-Australia relationship is grounded in deep strategic trust, mutual interests, and a shared ambition for the future of our region.”
The New Zealand government also confirmed that Lam would arrive in Auckland on August 12 and depart the following day.
The Vietnamese leader’s trip to Australia is likely to build on the momentum created by the two nations’ establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024. This raised Australia to the highest tier of Vietnam’s diplomatic hierarchy, alongside Russia, China, and the United States, and pledged to develop “all aspects of our relationship,” including defense and security, trade, education, energy cooperation, and digital transformation.
Lam’s visit, his first to Australia since being appointed president in April, will “consolidate political trust at the highest level and provide fresh momentum for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Vietnam’s Ambassador to Australia Pham Hung Tam told state media.
It will also offer an opportunity for Lam and Albanese “to exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern and enhance coordination at multilateral forums, reaffirming their shared commitment to peace, stability, cooperation, and sustainable development,” Tam said.
According to a Reuters report, Vietnam and Australia “are expected to sign 12 to 16 agreements covering areas such as education, digital transformation, agriculture, and healthcare.”
Lam’s trip to New Zealand, the first by a Vietnamese president since 2007, also follows the establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership last year, when Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described Vietnam as “incredibly important to New Zealand’s economic future.”
The move “reflects the high ambition and trust between our countries,” Luxon said in a statement yesterday. He added that Wellington and Hanoi aimed to strengthen ties “across food and fiber, education, tourism, technology, aviation and investment, supporting more exports and jobs here at home.”
In New Zealand, officials anticipate the signing of five or six agreements with their Vietnamese counterparts, Reuters reported.
In addition to the obvious economic complementarities, Vietnam’s relationships with Australia and New Zealand have been fortified by a shared concern about China’s growing maritime clout and ambition – an issue that was referenced in the joint statements announcing the establishment of both Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships. However, Hanoi continues to place great value in its relationship with Beijing, and in part due to the increasingly unpredictable and capricious nature of U.S. foreign policymaking under President Donald Trump, has doubled down on its omnivorous foreign policy approach, which seeks to create good relationships with countries on both sides of the global strategic divide.
This is reflected in Lam’s busy travel schedule since his appointment as CPV general secretary in August 2024. Over the past two years, he has paid official visits to China, Russia, Belarus, and Cuba, as well as the U.S., France, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and regional partners like Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Most significantly, he has spearheaded the creation of Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships with France (October 2024), Malaysia (November 2024), New Zealand (February 2025), Indonesia (March 2025), Singapore (March 2025), Thailand (May 2025), the U.K. (October 2025), and the European Union (January 2026). Since his appointment as president in April, Lam has also paid official visits to China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
