Headliners

Vietnam, Japan bring extensive strategic partnership to new height

The official visit to Japan by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh from November 22-25 is a success with comprehensive and specific outcomes of strategic importance, leaving a deep imprint on the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership. On the occasion, Vietnam and Japan issued a joint statement toward the opening of a new era in the bilateral extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia. 
This is Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's first official visit to Japan since he assumes the PM post and Japan has a new leader. During his stay in Japan, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his entourage had talks, important activities and meetings to promote the relationship between Vietnam and Japan.

As the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations is approaching, both sides noted with pleasure the remarkable achievements in relations in all aspects over the past half a century, and expressed confidence at this critical juncture in the bright future of relations for the next semi-centenary.

Reliable partners

At the talks meetings, both sides welcomed the strong, comprehensive and substantial development of bilateral relations in many fields. They confirmed that both countries are important partners for each other and share many common strategic interests. Both sides also confirmed that there remain great potentials for further deepening of their Extensive Strategic Partnership. Both sides consented to continue to work closely with the goal of ensuring regional and international peace, stability and prosperity. Japan expressed recognition of Vietnam’s increasing role and constructive contributions in international and regional issues in addition to confirmation of Vietnam’s consistent importance in Japan’s foreign policy toward the Indo-Pacific region. Vietnam acknowledged Japan’s role as an important and longstanding partner and expressed the desire for Japan to continue to play a positive and constructive role in international and regional issues.

Frequent, high level bilateral visits and exchanges have strengthened political ties while ever more robust cooperation in economy, trade and investment has contributed to further growth of economic ties. Substantial development has also been made in numerous fields, ranging from security, agriculture, science and technology, education and training, the environment, climate change countermeasures, labor issues, construction, ICT, health, culture, tourism, sports to municipal and people to people exchange.


Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio hosts the official welcoming ceremony
for Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


 The two Prime Minister at the welcoming ceremony. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds talks with his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio. Photo: Duong Giang/VNP


The two Prime Ministers witness the exchange of cooperation documents between Vietnam and Japan. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA 


The two Prime Ministers witness the exchange of an agreement on mutual legal assistance
in criminal matters between Vietnam and Japan. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


They witness the exchange off a MoU between the the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environment and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in fields of land,
water resources, meteorology and geographic information. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


They witness the exchange of a MoU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense and
Japanese Ministry of Defense on cyber security cooperation. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


On the occasion, PM Pham Minh Chinh has a meeting with Japanese Speaker
of the House of Representatives Hosoda Hiroyuki in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


The Vietnamese Prime Minister has a meeting with Japanese President
of the House of Councillors Santo Akiko. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Vietnam expressed gratitude to the Government of Japan and the Japanese people for the effective support for its socio-economic development and poverty reduction efforts through Official Development Assistance (ODA) during the past thirty years. Vietnam expressed appreciation for the active role and contribution that Japanese companies have made to the development of its economy and nation building process.

Together overcoming challenges

As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented impacts on the socio-economy of countries around the world including Vietnam and Japan, the two Prime Ministers consented to work closely together on COVID-19 measures.

Prime Minister Kishida announced that the Government of Japan will additionally provide 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Government of Vietnam. Prime Minister Chinh expressed his gratitude and high appreciation to the Government of Japan and the Japanese people for sharing COVID-19 vaccines that will amount to 5.6 million doses in total as well as many medical equipment and materials. Both sides consented to continue to work closely on research and production of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.
 


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives former Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives former Prime Minister of Japan Suga Yoshihide in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh receives Tochigi prefecture’s Governor Fukuda Tomikazu
during his working trip to the locality. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


On this occasion, PM Pham Minh Chinh attends an event marking the export of the Unshu mandarin,
a specialty fruit of Japan, to Vietnam. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


The Vietnamese Prime Minister and the Governor of Tochigi prefecture, delegates pose for a photo: Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh attends and addresses the Vietnam – Tochigi Economic Forum. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh has a reception for Ryutaro Hirai, Vice Chairman of Sojitz Corporation. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh has a meeting with Japanese enterprises on digital transformation in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh has a reception for President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kitaoka Shinichi in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives Chief Representative of Japan’s Komeito Party Yamaguchi Natsuo in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives the general director of Shionogi Inc. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives Higashihara Toshiaki, President of Hitachi Ltd. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


The Vietnamese Prime Minister receives the head of Hiroshima University. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA 

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has a dialogue with Japanese investors. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA 
 
Prime Minister Kishida stated that Japan will continue to contribute to Vietnam's socio-economic development. Prime Minister Chinh praised Prime Minister Kishida's new economic strategy for a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution and expressed confidence that the strategy would lead Japan to a new and stable stage of development. Japan highly appreciated Vietnam’s strategic orientations and directions as reflected in its 10-year Socio-economic Development Strategy for 2021-2030.

Japan is Vietnam’s leading important economic partner, the largest official development assistance (ODA) provider, second biggest investor, third largest tourism partner and fourth largest trade partner.
The two Prime Ministers consented to further facilitate business collaborations between Japanese and Vietnamese companies as well as improving the investment environment for companies through cooperation in such areas as digital transformation, diversification of the production base and development of supporting industries towards resilient global supply chains, including of both countries, which are keys for post COVID-19 economic revitalization. Both sides will continue cooperating in industrial development, and will consider expanding the scope of cooperation in training and consultation on kaizen, business matching, and capacity building for Vietnamese manufacturers to enable them to join Japanese companies’ supply chain in Vietnam, in the region and the world.

The two Prime Ministers shared their perceptions of digital transformation and the development of the digital economy as digital societies will play an important role in the post COVID-19 era. They consented to strengthen cooperation in creative innovation, ICT, digital transformation, digital economy, realization of smart cities through project formation studies etc, the development of broadband infrastructure including 5G, and information security.

The two Prime Ministers consented to work together to increase direct investment from Japan to Vietnam. Prime Minister Chinh welcomed Japanese companies to choose Vietnam as an investment destination and reaffirmed Vietnam's commitment to create an open and transparent investment environment and create a favorable environment for companies to conduct businesses. 

The two Prime Ministers consented to actively promote post COVID-19 recovery ODA programs which address emerging needs and interest of the two countries and match the great potentials of their Extensive Strategic Partnership toward the future, with focus on notably the four fields: transport infrastructure, climate change infrastructure, healthcare and digital transformation for post COVID-19 economic recovery, taking into account the importance of concessionality, simple procedures and flexibility in implementation, and instructed relevant authorities of both countries to launch intensive discussion on the programmes.

The two Prime Ministers confirmed that Vietnam and Japan will promote tourism cooperation, facilitate travel, so that tourism statistics can soon restore to 1.5 million which is the same level as before the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as possible, and increase tourism exchanges even more than before. They also confirmed to continue discussions for early mutual recognition of vaccination certificate between the two countries.

Contributing to regional peace and development 

Both Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening wide-ranging cooperation in regional and international conferences, including the UN, APEC, ASEM, EAS, ASEAN 3, Japan-ASEAN Summit, ARF, and ADMM-Plus, and to proactively and constructively contribute to the maintenance of regional and global peace, stability, cooperation and development.

The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed the importance of ASEAN unity and centrality, and their close cooperation for the steady and effective implementation of the revised implementation plan of the Vision Statement on Japan-ASEAN Friendship and Cooperation as well as the Joint Statement of the 23rd ASEAN-Japan Summit on Cooperation on ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

PM Pham Minh Chinh has a reception for Chairman of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Sasaki Nobuhiko in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


The Vietnamese Prime Minister attends the Vietnam-Japan investment promotion conference held in Tokyo. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh delivers a speech at the conference. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh witness the exchange of cooperation deals between the two countries’ enterprises. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


PM Pham Minh Chinh receives Kanagawa Governor Kuroiwa Yuji. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA


A ceremony at the airport to handover vaccines and donations for Vietnam’s COVID-19 fight
that the Japanese Government, businesses presented to Vietnam during PM Chinh’s visit. Photo: Pham Kien/VNA 
 

The two Prime Ministers consented to further promote free trade, and welcomed the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement on January 1, 2022. Both Prime Ministers reiterated the need for coordinating with Parties to ensure the full implementation of the Agreement. Both Prime Ministers consented on the importance of working together with the other members to uphold the high standards of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

They took note of the importance of maintaining cooperation in environmental protection for sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and green transformation. Both Prime Ministers reaffirmed their determination to implementing global agreements and commitments on sustainable development such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
 
By VNA/VNP

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