Japan wants to increase security cooperation with Vietnam

Yoichiro granted an interview to VOV ahead of Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man’s official visit to Japan in early December, shedding light on cooperation in various areas between the two countries.

VOV: How has the good cooperation between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Japanese Diet contributed to the development of the relationship between the two countries, especially following the upgrading of bilateral relationship to the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World” in November 2023?

Congressman Yoichiro: First of all, it must be emphasized that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership holds the highest position in Japan's diplomatic relations, therefore, upgrading the bilateral relationship to this level is of great significance. It can be said that this is a partnership close to an alliance, not just limited to economic cooperation but also encompassing politics, security-defense, diplomacy, and culture... It holds both symbolic and practical importance. I am confident that this relationship will continue to deepen in the near future.

Whenever I have the opportunity to exchange with the Vietnamese side, I have repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen our two countries’ relations at all levels, starting from people-to-people exchanges and youth exchanges to exchanges between institutions, governments, and leaders... I believe it’s important that these activities need to be continuously repeated. And the legislative bodies of both countries are making significant contributions to enhancing relations in this direction.

The parliaments of both countries also promote economic cooperation both multilaterally and bilaterally, along with strengthening security, diplomatic, and cultural cooperation. This includes cooperation in developing the service industry, people-to-people exchanges, human resource training cooperation, and joint efforts to address existing issues such as the difficulties faced by businesses when investing in each other’s country, creating a favorable working environment for laborers, and facilitating student exchanges between our two countries. Resolving these issues contributes to promoting bilateral relationship, aiming to concretize the framework of the newly established Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

VOV: How do you evaluate the cooperation between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Japanese Diet at multilateral forums? What are the significant results?

Congressman Yoichiro: Vietnam and Japan both participate in many multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum... Efforts to engage in such multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms are very important and bring great results for both countries. Moreover is bilateral cooperation in maintaining and ensuring security. Currently, there are still serious armed conflicts in many parts of the world, and both Vietnam and Japan are facing many security issues, which need to be addressed by strengthening cooperation, alongside promoting economic cooperation to ensure the safety of our people. Security cooperation between Japan and Vietnam not only contributes to both countries but also to Asia and the world.

Japan is also very eager to further enhance cooperation with Vietnam in this field. For Japan, the most fundamental security cooperation is the alliance with the United States, but at the same time, cooperation with countries such as the UK, France, the Republic of Korea, India, and Australia is also very important. Japan has signed many security cooperation agreements with various countries. As one of the lawmakers in Japan, I hope that in the future, Japan and Vietnam will also have a similar cooperation agreement because our relationship has reached a level sufficient to consider this issue. At the same time, this will bring benefits to both sides, similar to economic cooperation.

VOV: In the future, what areas should the Parliaments of both countries focus on to resolve obstacles and create frameworks to further promote economic and investment cooperation between Japan and Vietnam?

Congressman Yoichiro: As I mentioned earlier, one more thing that both sides need to continue doing is improving the investment environment. In practice, Japanese companies investing in Vietnam still face some difficulties with administrative procedures, which lead to wasted time and effort, and in some cases, projects are not approved. Specifically, some small and medium-sized enterprises in the service sector are eager to invest in Vietnam but are facing challenges. Similarly, businesses in sectors such as healthcare and education also encounter similar difficulties when investing there. On the flip side, Vietnamese companies face similar obstacles in Japan. I think this is an issue that needs to be addressed by both the Parliaments and governments of the two countries.

Last year, despite many difficulties, a Vietnamese company was successfully listed on Japan's stock exchange. We appreciate that, believing that with mutual effort, we can overcome challenges. Another important area to focus on is labour cooperation. Currently, the number of Vietnamese workers in Japan has surpassed 500,000, making them the largest group of foreign workers in Japan. While Japan is in dire need of foreign labor, creating a favourable working environment and improving the income of Vietnamese workers is something that needs immediate attention. Similarly, in terms of education, we need to facilitate easier student exchanges between the two countries, even establishing scholarship programmes to encourage more Vietnamese and Japanese students to study in each other’s countries.

In fact, there are many issues that the legislative bodies of both countries need to work together to address. However, from Japan's perspective, given our important partnership in trade, official development assistance, and other areas, it can be said that there is still much potential for both countries to explore. Therefore, we need to work together to resolve specific issues, so that we can promote cooperation in the coming time.