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The family of an Australian man jailed in Vietnam are calling on Governor-General David Hurley to raise his case with Vietnam's senior leaders during an official visit this week.
Key points:
- Human rights groups are urging the governor-general to raise the issue of political prisoners with Vietnam's government
- Australia and Vietnam are strengthening ties amid security tensions in the region
- Trade is growing but there is room for more investment, experts say
It comes as the relationship between Australia and Vietnam is the best it has ever been and continues to strengthen, according to experts.
The governor-general is in Vietnam at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
He will meet with the country's senior leaders, including general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President of the National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue.
Chau Van Kham, 73, is a retired baker from Sydney who fled to Australia following the Vietnam war. He was detained in Ho Chi Minh City in 2019 and later sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The guilty verdict was due to his involvement with Viet Tan, a democracy and human rights organisation that the Vietnamese government considers a terrorist group.
"We urge the Australian Governor-General David Hurley to appeal to the Vietnamese government to help bring my husband back to Australia," Mr Chau's wife, Trang Chau, told the ABC.
"I have recently lost my mother and I am longing to see my husband, whom I have not seen for over three years.
"While Australia and Vietnam celebrate 50 years of friendship between two countries, an elderly Australian is languishing in a Vietnamese jail with frail health. Please do not let my husband be a forgotten name."
Human Rights Watch called on the governor-general to urge the Vietnamese government to free all political prisoners and make a special appeal for Mr Chau's immediate and unconditional release.
"Hurley should publicly and privately raise a number of serious human rights concerns with the Vietnamese leadership. It's crucial that he discuss the plight of more than 160 people in prison for peacefully exercising their basic rights," Human Rights Watch said.
In a statement, a Government House spokesperson did not directly address the question of whether General Hurley would be raising Mr Chau's case.
They said the visit was to mark the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations and "comes as Australia and Vietnam are deepening ties, including through work underway to elevate our relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership".
"While we do not provide specific details of discussions between the governor-general and international leaders, His Excellency will highlight a range of matters including the strong trade, cultural and people-to-people links between Australia and Vietnam."
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australia "takes every opportunity" to raise Mr Chau's case "at the highest levels of the Vietnamese government", adding the Vietnamese authorities were aware of Australia's "close interest" in his case.
Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised Mr Chau's case during a visit in June last year, after the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found he was "forcibly disappeared".
The ABC has approached Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
Will AUKUS come up?
Australia and Vietnam established diplomatic ties in 1973 – the same year Australia withdrew from its participation in the Vietnam War.
Huong Le Thu, principal policy fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, said that starting point may have led to a level of awkwardness with Vietnam's communist government and caused the relationship to be slow-going at first, but that has long been overcome.
Five years ago, the two countries signed a strategic partnership, and are now in discussions about upgrading the relationship again to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which could allow for closer military collaboration, said Dr Hai Hong Nguyen, an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland.
"The higher the level of diplomatic ties, the higher the level of the political trust between leaders of the two countries," he said.
Dr Nguyen said while the governor-general's visit was highly symbolic, it was also "very important and very significant", adding the Australia-Vietnam relationship is the best it has ever been.
Dr Le Thu said Australia and Vietnam were both were playing a more active role in world affairs.
"I think both countries recognise the critical juncture that we are at, at the moment, in geopolitics," she said.
She said while they might have different methods of dealing with a security threat – whether it was alliances and submarines for Australia, or self-reliance and strong diplomacy from Vietnam – that shared goal could see the two countries seek closer cooperation.
"The method may be different, but I think they share similar goal of shaping the environment they're in and bearing their own responsibility," she said.
While some countries in South-East Asia, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, have expressed concern over the AUKUS alliance and nuclear-powered submarine deal, Vietnam has not been openly critical of the move.
"For Vietnam, it's been pretty clear that China's build-up has been, first and foremost, the most threatening," Dr Le Thu said, saying AUKUS was seen as a response to China's militarisation in the region.
She added that Vietnam did not want to see an arms race and stressed the importance of transparency and non-proliferation.
"Vietnam also shares concern of the security in the surrounding areas with Australia — looking at what's happening in South China Sea, looking at the aggressive rise of China," Dr Nguyen said.
"As long as AUKUS is not harmful to Vietnam's security … and it does not clearly provoke an arms race in the region, it's OK for Vietnam."
Dr Nguyen said Vietnam's public messaging about AUKUS was that nuclear energy must be developed for peaceful purposes and countries should strive for peace and stability.
General Hurley, in an address at a state banquet to mark the occasion, said: "Australia is proud to call Vietnam a friend and close partner and our relationship is going from strength to strength."
"We are working together to support our shared vision for an Indo-Pacific region that is stable, prosperous and resilient — and where sovereignty and international law are respected."
Lego invests more in Vietnam than Australia
The growing trade relationship has been touted by both sides — Australia is Vietnam's seventh largest trading partner, while Vietnam is Australia's 10th.
Two-way trade has reached $22 billion, and General Hurley pointed out ANZ was one of the first international banks in Vietnam, RMIT was the first foreign university, and Telstra laid the first undersea telecommunications cable to help link Vietnam with the world.
Dr Le Thu said while the relationship had been underperforming in terms of trade – which was surprising given their complementary economies – that had been rectified in recent years.
"For a long time, I think Vietnam was overlooked by Australia in many ways," she said.
"[It was] only since the geopolitical development with China, in particular, happened that Australia started to look for diversification and Vietnam became one of the more attractive destinations."
She said Australia had also dropped the ball on investment in Vietnam and this was an area for improvement.
"Even now, even small European countries have higher investment than Australia," she said.
"Lego, the company, has an investment of a factory in Vietnam, [which is worth] more than the totality of Australian investment in the country."
Tech companies like Apple and Intel are relocating production to Vietnam, and while Australia was "a little late to the party", Australians could still penetrate and get the upper hand in some sector, like renewable energy, she said.
Another important factor in the relationship was Vietnamese alumni of Australian universities who end up in important government positions or the private sector.
"The political differences are serious … more frequent meetings and visits such as this one are necessary to improve mutual understanding," Dr Le Thu said.
Dr Nguyen said if future generations of leadership followed the path set by the current countries' leaders – all while navigating through an increasingly complicated security situation – political trust between Australia and Vietnam would grow further.
"[If they] consolidate further the political trust … I would say collaboration between the two countries has no limit in the future," he said.