At the meeting, President Luong Cuong, on behalf of the State and people of Vietnam, warmly welcomed Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru on his first visit to Vietnam as the head of the Japanese Government. He showed his elation at the substantive, comprehensive, and effective development of bilateral relations across multiple fields, with remarkable progress and outstanding achievements recorded nearly two years after the two countries upgraded their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.

Reaffirming that Vietnam attaches great importance to its relationship with Japan, President Luong Cuong voiced support for Japan’s increasingly active role in contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

He expressed his belief that PM Ishiba’s visit will open a new stage of stronger and more effective development in bilateral relations, meeting the interests of the two peoples and contributing to regional cooperation and development.

Ishiba thanked President Luong Cuong expressed his pleasure at meeting the President again following their encounter at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Peru in November 2024. He noted that his visit coincided with Vietnam’s celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification, allowing him to witness Vietnam’s major transformation.

The Japanese leader affirmed that Japan would continue to support Vietnam in building an independent and self-reliant economy and achieving its development goals of becoming a modern industrialized upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income developed country by 2045.

Highlighting the importance of defence and security cooperation, PM Ishiba welcomed the recent announcement of the establishment of a deputy ministerial-level 2+2 Dialogue mechanism between the two countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministries of National Defence.

He expressed his desire to further boost bilateral defense and security cooperation. President Luong Cuong proposed that both sides effectively carry out existing cooperation agreements and actively promote discussions on new areas of co-operation.

Noting that there is still ample room for the development of bilateral economic ties, the Vietnamese State leader suggested the two sides deepen cooperation in trade, investment, and science and technology. He called for the implementation of specific cooperation projects in new fields such as digital transformation, green transition, high-quality workforce training, semiconductors, and AI; support for Vietnam in enhancing its capacity to respond to climate change; and promotion of high-tech agricultural cooperation.

Praising the positive contributions of the 630,000-strong Vietnamese community in Japan, PM Ishiba affirmed that the Japanese Government will continue to support and offer optimal conditions for Vietnamese people living, studying, and working in Japan. He also expressed his hope to further promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

Regarding regional and international issues, the two sides agreed to boost coordination, share positions, cooperate, and support each other on regional and international matters of mutual interest and within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, APEC, ASEAN, and the Mekong subregion.

They pledged to contribute to upholding a fair and equitable international system based on international law and the UN Charter. President Luong Cuong thanked Japan for supporting ASEAN’s stance on resolving differences by peaceful means, based on international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

On this occasion, President Luong Cuong extended an invitation to the Emperor and Empress of Japan to pay an official visit to Vietnam at an early date.

Vietnam and Japan identify new pillars in bilateral relations

VOV.VN - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Japanese counterpart Ishiba Shigeru have agreed to deepen economic cooperation as the main pillar of their bilateral relationship, while identifying cooperation in science and technology, innovation, and high-quality human resource training as a new pillar.

Japanese PM welcomed by Vietnamese counterpart in Hanoi

VOV.VN - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted an official welcome ceremony on April 28 morning in Hanoi for his Japanese counterpart Ishiba Shigeru, who is paying an official visit to Vietnam from April 27 to 29.