Vietnamese President Lương Cường and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in Lima on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo Lâm Khánh

LIMA — State President Lương Cường had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru on Saturday morning (local time) on the sidelines of the APEC 2024 Leaders’ Week in Peru.

At the meeting, PM Ishiba emphasised said Việt Nam is always a priority partner of Japan in the region.

President Cường underscored that Việt Nam considers Japan one of its reliable, important and long-term partners, and supports Japan's active contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

The two leaders expressed their delight at the effective implementation of the Việt Nam-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World.

Discussing cooperation directions in the coming time, Cường proposed the two sides strengthen political trust, increase annual high-level meetings, promote substantive defence and security cooperation through the effective implementation of signed cooperation agreements.

According to him, the two sides need to strengthen economic cooperation - the key pillar of the bilateral relationship, and continue to expand comprehensive cooperation to new areas, such as digital transformation, green transition.

He called on Japan to support Việt Nam in personel training for the semiconductor industry with university degrees or higher by 2030.

Affirming that the affection and mutual understanding between the two countries' people are the foundation for promoting bilateral relations, Cường suggested further deepening cooperation in human resources training, especially strategic-level managers, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, locality-to-locality collaboration, and tourism.

Ishiba agreed with Cường's proposals, affirming that he will direct ministries and agencies to concretise the new relationship framework.

The Japanese Government will continue to have policies to encourage and support foreign communities in Japan, including Vietnamese people to live, study and work in a convenient manner there. He highly valued the Vietnamese student community in Japan.

Also at the meeting, the two leaders affirmed to continue to closely coordinate on regional and international issues of mutual concern in order to actively contribute to maintaining peace, stability and development in the region and the world, and strengthen cooperation at multilateral forums, international and regional organisations, such as the United Nations, APEC, ASEAN and Mekong. — VNA/VNS