TOKYO — President Trần Đại Quang and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe have reached high consensus on major orientations and concrete measures to advance the Việt Nam-Japan extensive strategic partnership in a more comprehensive, practical and efficient manner.

At their talks in Tokyo on May 31 during President Quang’s State visit to Japan, the leaders noted with pleasure pragmatic and rapid developments of the Việt Nam-Japan relationship across many fields, with many similarities in strategic interests. They agreed that 2018 will begin a new development phase of bilateral ties.

PM Abe described President Quang’s visit as a very important political event in the Việt Nam-Japan relationship. He said Japan highly values Việt Nam’s socio-economic achievements as well as its increasingly important position and role in the region and the world at large.

“Japan attaches great importance to Việt Nam in its foreign policy,” the host emphasised.

President Quang affirmed: “Việt Nam consistently considers Japan a leading, long-term partner.” He appreciated the country’s effective co-operation and support for Việt Nam in various realms.

Host and guest consented to continue to enhance mutual political trust by maintaining high-level visits and meetings, and intensifying cooperation and exchanges between the two parties and legislative bodies.

They also agreed to beef up economic links in the spirit of mutual benefit, increase Japan’s investments in Việt Nam and join hands in major projects on high-quality infrastructure, energy, personnel training and climate change response, as well as in implementing Việt Nam’s industrialisation strategy.

The two sides will work together in order to raise bilateral trade revenue and facilitate the entry of Vietnamese seafood and fruits like litchi and longan into the Japanese market.

PM Shinzo Abe affirmed that Japan will continue supporting Việt Nam in socio-economic development by providing official development assistance (ODA), strengthening co-operation in high quality infrastructure projects, and committing to the provision of 16 billion JPY (US$142 million) in ODA for a project to enhance vocational training capacity of Việt Nam.

President Quang hailed contributions of Japanese ODA to Việt Nam’s socio-economic development and the improvement of the country’s competitiveness. He agreed that the two countries need to co-ordinate closely in using the resource.

Both sides concurred to foster affiliation in security and defence as well as in implementing the declaration on joint vision in defence co-operation between the two countries. They will bolster co-operation in various areas such as cyber security, defence equipment, military medicine, UN peacekeeping operations, war consequence settlement through landmine clearance and support of Agent Orange/dioxin victims in Việt Nam, improve the capacity of law enforcement at sea, and share experience on maritime policy.

The leaders lauded the launch of negotiations for an agreement on mutual criminal legal support and another on transfer of sentenced persons.

Việt Nam and Japan agreed to promote co-ordination in education, human resources training, agriculture, health care, labour, urban building and development, administrative reform, and partnership among localities.

PM Shinzo Abe pledged to assist Việt Nam in high-ranking official training, administrative reform, while continuing to receive apprentices from Việt Nam.

The leaders affirmed that the two countries would closely co-ordinate in organising activities celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, as well as promoting culture, sport and people-to-people exchanges, towards further deepening mutual trust and understanding between their people. They stressed that this is an important foundation for sustainable development of Việt Nam-Japan relations in the future.

President Quang asserted Việt Nam’s consistent policy of actively coordinating with international partners, contributing to maintaining peace, stability and cooperation in the region and the world.

The two sides agreed to enhance their coordination at global and regional forums in the issues of common concern. Talking about the Korean Peninsula issue, the leaders affirmed support for efforts towards peace, stability and denuclearisation in the peninsula, and stressed the importance of resolving disagreements by diplomatic and peaceful measures.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides agreed on the importance of ensuring peace, security, navigation and aviation freedom and safety in the sea, and the peaceful settlement of disputes by peaceful means without the use of force or threat to use force, exercising self-restraint and avoiding all actions that would harm trust, and strictly abiding by international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They also underlined the need to respect diplomatic and legal processes, fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and strive to reach a framework of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in a practical and effective manner with legal effectiveness.

At the end of the talks, President Quang and PM Shinzo Abe witnessed the signing of four documents between the two countries’ ministries and sectors.

The documents include a diplomatic note on a non-refundable aid worth 745 million JPY (equivalent to $6.77 million) for human resources development scholarships; a diplomatic note on non-refundable aid worth 1.96 billion JPY (equivalent to $17.8 million) for the upgrade of water drainage ditches in HCM City; a memorandum of understanding on co-operation in land and water resource management, measurement, mapping and information on geographical space, hydro-metrology and remote sensing between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Việt Nam and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan; and the minutes on co-operation on urban construction and development in 2018-21 between Việt Nam’s Ministry of Construction and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

On the occasion, the two sides adopted the joint statement on the State visit to Japan of the President of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam. Later on the same day, President Quang and his spouse attended an official banquet hosted by PM Shinzo Abe and his spouse. — VNS