Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Minh Vũ (right) had talks with Murano Seiichi, Chairman of the Japan-Việt Nam parliamentary friendship alliance of Kobe city, Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam always considers Japan as a long-term and leading important partner, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Minh Vũ while meeting a visiting delegation of the Japan-Việt Nam parliamentary friendship alliance of Kobe City, Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

Expressing his delight at the robust and comprehensive growth of the strategic partnership between Việt Nam and Japan in recent years, Vũ emphasised that Japan is Việt Nam's top economic cooperation partner across various fields such as official development assistance (ODA), investment, trade, labour, tourism, locality-to-locality cooperation, and people-to-people exchange.

Commending the Việt Nam's development and the countries’ relationship over the years, chairman of the alliance Murano Seiichi said he wants to enhance effective and substantive collaboration between Kobe and Vietnamese localities, including Hà Nam and Quảng Ninh provinces, Hải Phòng City, particularly in economics, investment, trade, and cultural and people-to-people exchange.

Kobe is willing to create favourable conditions to receive outstanding Vietnamese individuals to study and work in the city and hopes to strengthen tourism cooperation with Việt Nam by establishing a direct flight route connecting the two

Acknowledging positive contributions and support from the alliance, Vũ suggested that it encourage Kobe's businesses to invest in areas of Việt Nam's interest like manufacturing, high-tech agriculture, processing, and farm produce export-import.

The alliance, established in 2019, is the first of its kind in the prefecture, with the number of its members amounting to 36 out of Kobe’s 65 parliamentarians. — VNS