President Võ Văn Thưởng receives Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamikawa Yoko in Hà Nội on October 10.

HÀ NỘI – President Võ Văn Thưởng hosted a reception in Hà Nội on Tuesday for the visiting Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yoko Kamikawa, during which he applauded the guest's contributions to the Việt Nam-Japan relations in her various positions over the years.

President Thưởng said Japan was Việt Nam's leading economic cooperation partner in areas such as official development assistance (ODA), investment, trade, labour, and tourism.

He spoke highly of the two countries' growing locality-to-locality cooperation and people-to-people exchange, as nearly 100 pairs of their localities have established cooperative relations and the Vietnamese community in Japan has reached nearly 500,000 people.

Thưởng affirmed that the two countries have many similarities and ample room to further develop their friendship and cooperation in all fields.

He proposed that the two sides continue to promote the exchange of delegations at all levels to consolidate and strengthen political trust, and focus on boosting economic cooperation, trade, investment, labour, ODA, and human resources training. He also emphasised the need to promote locality-to-locality, cultural, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

He recommended FM Yoko pay attention to and urge the Japanese government to create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live, study, and work in Japan.

FM Yoko expressed her impression of the development of Việt Nam and Việt Nam-Japan relations since she visited the Southeast Asian nation six years ago.

She also conveyed her desire for the two countries to continue deepening cooperation in existing areas and to expand into new fields such as digital transformation and green transition.

Regarding international and regional issues, President Thưởng affirmed that Việt Nam would be willing to cooperate closely with Japan to contribute to the success of the ASEAN-Japan Summit set to take place later this year.

Minister Yoko affirmed that Việt Nam played a crucial role in Japan's foreign policy in the region, and Japan would continue to coordinate closely with Việt Nam at multilateral forums and on international and regional issues of mutual interest. 

Meeting party official

Head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations Lê Hoài Trung on October 10 received visiting Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamikawa Yoko in Hà Nội.

At the meeting, Trung said the Party, State, and people of Việt Nam appreciated Japan's companionship and cooperation during the past time, contributing to Việt Nam’s socio-economic development, industrialisation, and modernisation process.

The two sides hailed the good developments in Việt Nam - Japan relations which benefit the two countries' peoples and actively contribute to peace, cooperation, and development of the region and the world.

The two sides agreed to coordinate closely to continue to concretise important common perceptions reached during the online talk between Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida in February 2023. They discussed directions to promote cooperation in the coming time, including relations through the party channel, contributing to taking Việt Nam-Japan relations to a new stable level. 

The two officials also compared notes on global and regional situations. VNA/VNS