Vietnam ’s government leader has said the country will continue to work with Japan to further promote relations between the two countries, for their common interests and development.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made this affirmation in Tokyo on April 20 during his meeting with former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, President of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance (JVFPA) of the Democratic Party of Japan.

At the meeting, Dung spoke highly of the sentiment and valuable contributions of the former Japanese Prime Minister and the JVFPA to developing cooperation and friendship between Vietnam and Japan .

The Vietnamese Government leader said he is pleased with strong developments in strategic partnership despite the impacts of global economic downturn. He thanked the Japanese side for its provision of official development assistance (ODA) capital to Vietnam to implement development goals.

He suggested the two sides focus on boosting cooperation in such areas as infrastructure, energy, rare earth minerals exploitation, environment, culture, technology transfer and support industry.

He expressed his hope that with their prestige, the former Japanese PM and the JVFPA will make greater contributions to developing the friendship and cooperation between the two countries and between the two parliaments in particular.

For his part, Yukio Hatoyama spoke highly of the Vietnamese Government and people’s assistance to Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March last year.

He affirmed that the JVFPA will actively lobby the Japanese congress and government to increase ODA provision for Vietnam in the fields of infrastructure investment and human resource training, as well as encourage Japanese enterprises to invest in Vietnam .

On the same day, PM Dung, who is in Tokyo to attend the 4 th Mekong-Japan Summit, had separate meetings with Chairman and CEO of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Hiroshi Watanabe and President of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Tadashi Okamura.

He also met Chairman of the International Friendship Exchange Council (FEC) Ken Matsuzawa and President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Akihiko Tanaka.-VNA