President Tô Lâm on Thursday received Suga Yoshihide, a special envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and former PM of Japan. VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

HÀ NỘI — President Tô Lâm on Thursday received Suga Yoshihide, a special envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and former PM of Japan, who is in Việt Nam to pay his last respects to the late Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng.

On behalf of the Japanese government, Suga conveyed his deepest condolences to the Party, State, people of Việt Nam, and the family of the late Party leader.

The special envoy expressed gratitude for the significant contributions made by the General Secretary to enhancing the friendship and cooperation between Việt Nam and Japan, which, he said, will always be cherished and remembered by the people of both countries.

He noted that under the General Secretary's leadership, Việt Nam-Japan relations have made remarkable and noteworthy progress in various fields.

Highlighting that the relationship was upgraded to an extensive strategic partnership in 2014 and a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2023 during the tenure of the late General Secretary, President Lâm affirmed the ties have seen increasing political trust and expanded cooperation across various fields. The collaboration between the two countries at regional and international forums has grown more and more reliable and close-knit, with Japan remaining one of Việt Nam's leading economic partners in development cooperation, investment, and trade.

The State leader called on the former Japanese PM to continue supporting the strengthening of bilateral high-level exchanges and collaboration in such fields as defence, security, economy, locality-to-locality cooperation, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Suga affirmed that the Japanese government and he personally will continue to work to enhance the nations’ comprehensive strategic partnership, particularly in economy, investment, trade, official development assistance (ODA), and labour. — VNS