Rale Rasic was a football pioneer who leaves a mighty legacy.

His playing talent brought him from his homeland in then-Yugoslavia to Footscray JUST. The joy and success he found there launched his coaching career and made Australia his home.

Only eight years after his arrival in Australia and at just 34, Rale was appointed coach of the Australian national team. A courageous choice that would launch a bold new era.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Can I thank Prime Minister Chinh for the very warm welcome to Vietnam, and for the very constructive dialogue and meeting that we held today. This afternoon, of course, I have further meetings with Vietnam's leadership. But right now, we're here to meet the Young Matildas, who are doing such a great job of representing Australia, proudly here at the qualifiers for the Asia Cup here in Vietnam. They had a big win last night, 5-0 against Lebanon.

VƯƠNG ĐÌNH HUỆ, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF VIETNAM: I am confident that your visit will be a great success. And it will make meaningful contributions to further strengthening the strategic partnership between our two countries, with a view to upgrading our bilateral ties, elevating our bilateral ties to a new height - a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and Australia in the time to come. I myself paid a very fruitful visit to Australia last December, as you are well informed.

I’m deeply grateful to you, Prime Minister Chinh for your hospitality this evening and for hosting me for this important visit.

It’s been an honour to travel to Vietnam in this milestone year of our relationship.

No matter where I have been on this visit – whether talking to students studying at RMIT, or meeting business representatives, or enjoying a Vietnamese beer at a bia hoi – I have felt welcome.

While I’m a long way from home, it doesn’t feel like it.

Even my Vietnamese beer yesterday was made using Australian barley. 

I’m delighted to be back in Singapore and here for my first visit as Prime Minister of Australia.

I’m grateful to Acting Prime Minister Wong for a very positive and productive Leaders’ Meeting this morning. And I wish my friend Prime Minister Lee a speedy recovery.

And I’m deeply honoured that the International Institute for Strategic Studies has invited me to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue.

For two decades, this highly-respected forum has brought together experts in both defence and diplomacy.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you referenced Singapore Prime Minister Lee's recent speech in China. Singapore's Defence Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen was in Australia recently. And there he mentioned some very positive things about Australia's potential to play a bigger role in the region and welcomed Australia's future submarines to call into Singapore's ports. But he also said something surprising, at least I found it surprising, that he said that Australia was not just an Indo-Pacific country, but an Asian country.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’m delighted to be here with you in Hanoi to celebrate the continuing growth of RMIT Vietnam and to celebrate the education links that are such a central part of the Australia-Vietnam relationship.

I am pleased to be joined by Professor Alec Cameron, RMIT Vice-Chancellor, who has travelled from Australia to join his team on this occasion. And I’m especially pleased to be joined by Professor Claire Macken, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of RMIT Vietnam, who is the face of RMIT in this country.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'm very pleased to be here on my first official visit to Vietnam as Australia's Prime Minister, to mark the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relationship. We are strategic partners and we've been enduring friends over that 50 years. And nothing embodies that more than this very structure here, a structure that beneath it is about people. The provision of education services from the RMIT in Vietnam has been in place now for more than two decades. I came to RMIT here in Hanoi in 2007 on my last visit. It was in a different place then.

It’s great to be here in Hanoi, and what a day it’s been a visit to RMIT campus to launch their new Hanoi Industry and Innovation Hub, a pit-stop for beers and banh mi – to showcase Australian barley and wheat, and now here to highlight the incredible work of the business community.

I’m proud to visit Vietnam during our 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

It was the foresight of one of my predecessors – Gough Whitlam – that started us on this journey.

Fifty years on, that foresight has translated into a relationship underpinned by respect and trust.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Thank you very much Prime Minister, and thank you for the very warm welcome that you have given us here in Vietnam. Thank you, as well, to your entire people for the warm welcome that we had yesterday on our arrival.