President affirms priority to co-operation with Japan, Laos
HA NOI — Viet Nam regarded maintaining friendly relations and co-operation with Japan as one of the country's priority foreign policies, said President Truong Tan Sang.
At a reception to welcome Japan's Prince Akishino to Ha Noi yesterday, President Sang said that he was delighted at the rapid and strong development of ties between both countries, especially after their leaders agreed to lift relations to a strategic partnership in 2009.
He congratulated Japan on its achievements in national construction and development, especially in the wake of the disasters it endured last year.
Sang said he believed that Japan would continue to prosper and play an important role in the region and the world at large.
The Vietnamese leader informed his guest that a steering committee had been set up to co-ordinate activities for the Viet Nam-Japan Friendship Year in 2013 and added that he hoped Japan would help Viet Nam to organise activities to mark the event.
Prince Akishino thanked the Vietnamese people for their support last year as the country dealt with the consequences of a massive earthquake and tsunami.
He also said that he hoped Viet Nam would support his delegation's aims to protect the country's environment and maintain bio-diversity.
Security talks
The links between Vietnamese and Lao public security forces had made practical contributions to the integration and development of the two countries, President Sang said yesterday when receiving Lao Minister of Public Security Thongbanh Sengaphone in Ha Noi.
The President said that the visit would strengthen the close friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive co-operation between the two Parties, States and the two public security forces.
Sang said that the forces should join hands in building plans for mutual assistance in safeguarding security and maintaining social order.
Minister Thongbanh Sengaphone, who is also Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, said his ministry would continue working more closely with Viet Nam.
Earlier, the Lao minister attended a meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Viet Nam-Laos diplomatic ties, 35 years since the signing of the Viet Nam-Laos Friendship and Co-operation Treaty and the 67th founding anniversary of the Vietnamese People's Public Security.
Thongbanh Sengaphone thanked Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security for helping train more than 1,000 security officials and providing technical equipment to Laos. — VNS