The Government leader madethe statement when he received Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono who paid hima courtesy visit while here to attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEFASEAN) 2018 in Hanoi and to co-chair the 10th session of the Vietnam– Japan Cooperation Committee.
At the reception, PM Phucalso expressed his hope for strengthened ASEAN – Japan and Mekong – Japan cooperation,especially when Vietnam shoulders the role of the coordinator of the ASEAN –Japan relations in the 2018-2021 period. He also spoke highly of Japan’sprovision of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam in the recentpast and affirmed that the Vietnamese Government highly values and strives toeffectively implement the ODA projects.
The PM asked the Japanesetop diplomat to accelerate the economic linkage between the two countries,especially in the fields of great potential, and spoke highly of thesignificant activities to mark the 45th anniversary of theestablishment of bilateral diplomatic relations which, he said, make importantcontributions to the strengthening of the trust and intensifying of thepeople-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
For his part, ForeignMinister Kono expressed his desire to contribute to the success of the WEFASEAN 2018 and the further pushing up of the Vietnam – Japan relations andcooperation. He affirmed that Japan highly values the proactive role and activecontributions by Vietnam in international and regional issues, and asked forclose coordination from Vietnam for the success of the coming Mekong – Japan summit.
The Japanese top diplomatreiterated that Japan will share with Vietnam experiences in building an e-governmentand support the viewpoint of Vietnam and other ASEAN countries in the East Sea issueswhen Vietnam takes the role of the coordinator of the ASEAN – Japan relations from2018.-VNA