Prime Minister welcomes Secretary-General of Japan’s ruling party

Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received Secretary-General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) Nikai Toshihiro, who also chairs the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, in Hoi An city, the central province of Quang Nam, on January 12.

Welcoming Nikai and the Japanese economic, cultural and tourism exchange delegation, PM Phuc said the Government and localities of Vietnam attach great importance to this time’s exchange programme.

He noted the diverse exchange and cooperation activities that have been held like workshops, forums on economic, labour and tourism collaboration, and meetings between leaders of the countries’ localities reflect the vigorous growth of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership.

According to him, bilateral relations have enjoyed breakthrough, comprehensive and profound developments as seen in the extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia founded in 2014, in which Vietnam considers Japan a trustworthy partner of leading importance.

The PM appreciated contributions by Nikai and Japanese parliamentarians in the friendship parliamentary alliance to the Vietnam-Japan ties. He called for more parliamentarian exchanges and locality-to-locality cooperation so as to reinforce the friendship and mutual understanding between the two peoples, especially the young.

For his part, Nikai said his exchange delegation to Vietnam this time is the largest-ever delegation of Japan, which consists of over 1,000 members from parliamentarians, officials of ministries, sectors, localities and businesses to people. This demonstrates his country’s high consensus in the enhancement of the friendship with Vietnam, he said.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed to promote meetings between all-level officials, increase locality-to-locality and people-to-people exchange, and further step up connections in investment, trade, labour and tourism.

They also agreed to strengthen ties at multilateral forums as well as in international and regional issues of common concern, especially when Vietnam is serving as the coordinator of the ASEAN-Japan relations for 2018-2021, ASEAN Chair in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021.

On this occasion, PM Phuc and Nikai witnessed the signing of 12 cooperation documents between ministries, sectors, localities and businesses of the two countries./.