Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga arrives in Hanoi on October 18, begining his official visit to Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his wifestarted their official visit to Vietnam from October 18 afternoon at the invitationof Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
This is his first overseas trip by PM Suga since he took office last month andthe second consecutive time that a Japanese prime minister has selected Vietnamas his first overseas destination after taking office.
After Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic ties on September 21, 1973, thebilateral relationship has experienced rapid developments over the past years.
The Vietnam-Japan relationship is now at its best since the establishment ofthe diplomatic ties, with high mutual trust.
The two sides have maintained important cooperation mechanisms such as theVietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee co-chaired by foreign ministers of the twocountries, the strategic partnership dialogue on external affairs, nationaldefence and security at deputy foreign ministerial level, the defence policydialogue at the deputy ministerial level, the deputy ministerial-level securitydialogue, the joint committee on trade, energy and industry, the agriculturaldialogue at the ministerial level, and the maritime policy dialogue at theministerial level.
Japan is Vietnam’s leading important economic partner, the largest officialdevelopment assistance (ODA) provider, second biggest investor, third largesttourism partner and fourth largest trade partner.
In the first nine months of this year, two-way trade revenue reached 28.6billion USD. By September 2020, Japan had run 4,595 valid FDI projects worth59.87 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking second among 136 countries andterritories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.
Meanwhile, Japan’s ODA to Vietnam was valued at some 2.57 trillion JPY (23.76billion USD) as of December 2019, making up 26.3 percent of Vietnam’saccumulative foreign loans.
Breakthrough have been made in agricultural cooperation between the twocountries since the State visit to Japan by President Sang in 2014, asreflected through the signing of a medium and long-term vision on agriculturalcooperation in September 2015, and the signing of an adjusted vision in May2018.
Notably, collaboration in climate change response has made big strides as Japanhas continuously provided ODA for Vietnam in recent years to help the latterroll out projects in this regard.
Partnerships in education and training have also flourished in different forms.Currently, Vietnam is the largest source of trainees in Japan with the totalnumber exceeding 230,000.
Japan is one of the countries that have granted the largest non-refundable aidto Vietnam’s education and training sector. More than 80,000 Vietnamesestudents are studying in the country.
Japan is cooperating with four Vietnamese universities to improve theirtraining quality, while helping Vietnam with high-quality personnel training inscience, technology, management and services, and Japanese language teaching.
Relations between localities of the two countries are also thriving, with morethan 70 cooperation documents inked so far.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries have maintained all-levelexchanges in different forms. PM Phuc held phone talks with PM Suga on October12, and with PM Abe on May 4 and August 4.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh had phonetalks with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu in March and June.
The two countries have also supported each other in the fight against theepidemic.
The Japanese leader’s visit would offer an opportunity for Vietnam to prove itssafety and effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while promoting thecountry’s achievements in reform and socio-economic development, as well asefforts in improving its position in international area, implementing theforeign policy and international integration./.
