TOKYO — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe discussed major orientations and specific measures to develop the Việt Nam-Japan extensive strategic partnership in a comprehensive, pragmatic and more effective manner in the time ahead during talks in Tokyo on Saturday.

The talks followed a welcome ceremony for the Vietnamese Prime Minister.

They expressed their delight at the strong and substantive developments in bilateral cooperation over the past years, especially in the economy, agriculture and exchanges between localities.

PM Phúc congratulated Japan on its successful organisation of the G7 Summit and the expanded G7 Summit.

He affirmed Việt Nam’s consistent policy of regarding Japan as a leading and long-term partner.

For his part, PM Shinzo Abe congratulated his Vietnamese partner on his new post as head of the Vietnamese Government.

He extended thanks to PM Phúc for attending the expanded G7 Summit, and applauded the Vietnamese Government leader’s speech delivered at the event.

He said Japan attached importance to the relationship with Việt Nam and wished to continue closely cooperating with the country in order to push forward the bilateral ties in a more comprehensive fashion.

The two PMs agreed to boost political trust by maintaining regular exchanges of high-ranking delegations and meetings on the sideline of international forums, and by enhancing the efficiency of bilateral dialogue mechanisms.

They said they would reinforce defence and security cooperation, particularly in dealing with the aftermath of war and UN peacekeeping missions.

PM Abe said he hoped to revisit Việt Nam soon.

Both sides also agreed to seek specific measures to promote connectivity between the two economies in terms of economic strategies, production resources and human resources via investment and trade cooperation and official development assistance (ODA).

PM Shinzo Abe stated that Japan would continue offering ODA for Việt Nam’s infrastructure development and climate change response.

He said Japan would work closely with Việt Nam in implementing an initiative on boosting Japan-Mekong links and a US$110-billion credit plan to develop high-quality infrastructure in Asia.

PM Phúc called for Japan’s support for Việt Nam accessing preferential loans from international financial organisations, including those from the World Bank’s International Development Association after 2017.

The two sides agreed to boost Japan’s investment in Việt Nam via the implementation of Phase VI of the Việt Nam-Japan Joint Initiative in 2016. They pledged close cooperation in the implementation of Vietnam’s Industrialisation Strategy within the framework of the Vietnam-Japan cooperation until 2020 with a vision to 2030, and acceleration of big projects on infrastructure, including the North-South Highway and the Ninh Thuận 2 Nuclear Power Plant.

The two sides discussed measures to promote the cooperation in trade and hi-tech agriculture, and create conditions for each other’s agricultural products to enter the other’s market.

The two sides also reached agreement on enhancing cooperation in health, the training of human resources and Japan’s reception of Vietnamese trainees, while continuing to implement the Vietnam-Japan University project as well as bolstering tourism and people-to-people exchanges.

Concerning climate change, PM Shinzo Abe announced non-refundable aid worth 300 million JPY (US$2.5 million) to assist Việt Nam in dealing with drought and salt water intrusion. He affirmed Japan would work with Vietnam to seek medium and long term solutions to those problems, adding that Japan is ready to provide official development assistance capital to build dams and reservoirs based on specific requests from Vietnam. In the immediate future, Japan would send JICA’s experts to conduct surveys under the Water Management Project in Bến Tre Province.

Discussing international and regional issues of common concern, PM Shinzo Abe affirmed that Japan would coordinate with Việt Nam in the preparation for APEC Year in 2017.

The two sides shared the international community’s deep concerns on the East Sea situation in recent time, particularly the large-scale artificial island build-up. They agreed on the importance of ensuring peace, security, safety and freedom of maritime and aviation in the East Sea.

The relevant sides should not take actions changing the status quo or further complicating and expanding disputes and militarising the East Sea, the two PMs said, stressing that disputes should be solved via peaceful measures on the basis of respect for diplomatic and legal procedures, full observance of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) while striving for the early formation of a Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea.

After the talks, the two PMs witnessed the exchange of five cooperation documents, of which four are ODA loans worth a total of 166 billion JPY (US$1.5 billion) for the urban railway No.1 in HCM City, the Thái Bình thermoelectricity plant, and the second phase of HCM City’s water environment improvement work. The fifth document is a stock purchase agreement between Vietnam Airlines and Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc.

The two leaders then met with the media on the outcomes of their talks.

On the same day, PM Phúc received officials from some of Japan’s organisations and businesses including Chairman of the Japan International Cooperation Agency Shinichi Kitaoka, Honorary Chairman of the Mitsubishi Group Kojima Yorihiko, and Governor of Aichi Prefecture Hideaki Omura. He also visited a Yokoyama farm in Aichi Prefecture.

Later in the evening, PM Shinzo Abe held a banquet for his Vietnamese counterpart. — VNS