Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide will pay an official visit to Vietnam from October 18-20. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The official visit toVietnam by Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, scheduled for October 18-20,takes place in the context of the bilateral extensive strategic partnershipdeveloping fruitfully across spheres.
This is the first overseas trip by PM Suga since hetook office last month and thesecond consecutive time that a Japanese prime minister has selected Vietnam ashis first overseas destination after taking office.
After Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic tieson September 21, 1973, the bilateral relationship has experienced rapiddevelopments over the past years.
In 1995, Japan was the first country in the Group ofSeven (G7) to welcome the Vietnamese Party General Secretary.
In 2009, the two countries set up a strategicpartnership. Two years later, Japan was the first G7 member state to recogniseVietnam’s market economy mechanism.
During the visit to Japan by President Truong TanSang in March 2014, the two countries advanced their relationship to anextensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia.
The Vietnam-Japan relationship is now at its bestsince the establishment of the diplomatic ties, with high mutual trust.
The two sides have maintained important cooperationmechanisms such as the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee co-chaired byforeign ministers of the two countries, the strategic partnership dialogue onexternal affairs, national defence and security at deputy foreign ministeriallevel, the defence policy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level, the deputyministerial-level security dialogue, the joint committee on trade, energy andindustry, the agricultural dialogue at the ministerial level, and the maritimepolicy dialogue at the ministerial level.
Japan is Vietnam’s leading important economicpartner, the largest official development assistance (ODA) provider, secondbiggest investor, third largest tourism partner and fourth largest tradepartner.
In the first nine months of this year, two-way traderevenue reached 28.6 billion USD. By September 2020, Japan had run 4,595 validFDI projects worth 59.87 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking second among 136countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.
Meanwhile, Japan’s ODA to Vietnam was valued at some2.57 trillion JPY (23.76 billion USD) as of December 2019, making up 26.3percent of Vietnam’s accumulative foreign loans.
Breakthrough have been made in agriculturalcooperation between the two countries since the State visit to Japan byPresident Sang in 2014, as reflected through the signing of a medium andlong-term vision on agricultural cooperation in September 2015, and the signingof an adjusted vision in May 2018.
Notably, collaboration in climate change responsehas made big strides as Japan has continuously provided ODA for Vietnam inrecent years to help the latter roll out projects in this regard.
Partnerships in education and training have alsoflourished in different forms. Currently, Vietnam is the largest source oftrainees in Japan with the total number exceeding 230,000.
Japan is one of thecountries that have granted the largest non-refundable aid to Vietnam’seducation and training sector. More than 80,000 Vietnamese students arestudying in the country.
Japan is cooperating with four Vietnameseuniversities to improve their training quality, while helping Vietnam withhigh-quality personnel training in science, technology, management andservices, and Japanese language teaching.
Relations between localities of the two countriesare also thriving, with more than 70 cooperation documents inked so far.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries havemaintained all-level exchanges in different forms. PM Phuc held phone talkswith PM Suga on October 12, and with PM Abe on May 4 and August 4.
Meanwhile,Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh had phone talks withJapanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu in March and June.
The two countries have also supported each other inthe fight against the epidemic.
The Japanese leader’s visit would offer anopportunity for Vietnam to prove its safety and effective response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, while promoting the country’s achievements in reform andsocio-economic development, as well as efforts in improving its position ininternational area, implementing the foreign policy and internationalintegration./.
VNA
