Japanese experts optimistic about prospects for Vietnam relations

Dr. Tomotaka Shoji, Director of the Regional Research Division of the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, assessed that the Vietnam-Japan relationship has prospects for further development.

This was his comment in an interview with a VNA reporter in Tokyo ahead of President Vo Van Thuong's official visit to Japan from November 27-30.

The official visit to Japan of President Vo Van Thuong is of great significance.

Dr. Shoji commented that in the context of this year being the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation, the visit is an opportunity for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Vo Van Thuong to reaffirm the strength of bilateral relations and further development in bilateral and multilateral relations.

According to Dr. Shoji, Japanese people consider Vietnam an ideal tourist destination due to its close geographical location, attractive sights and cuisine.

He assessed Vietnam as a rapidly developing economy with energetic people, and expressed his joy that Vietnamese people feel familiar with Japan and Japanese people feel very close to Vietnamese people, especially when there are currently many Vietnamese people living in Japan. Being both Asian countries, he said that the two countries get along very well, and the feeling of familiarity also plays an important role in promoting Japan's cooperation with Vietnam.

Regarding the strengths of the Vietnam-Japan relationship, Dr. Shoji affirmed that the two countries can establish and maintain a strong bilateral relationship thanks to geographical proximity, ethnic empathy, economic complementarity and converging strategic interests. He said that the first strength is economic cooperation, emphasizing that bilateral cooperation in this field has made extremely strong progress.

Japan has long attached importance to economic cooperation in its foreign policy. With its strong economic potential, Japan wishes to exploit its advantages to strengthen relations with Vietnam.

In addition, Dr. Shoji emphasized that security is also a very important area of cooperation. He said that the two sides have a lot of prospects for cooperation in this area. Assessing the challenges in bilateral relations, Dr. Shoji said that although the relationship between the two countries is good, Vietnam and Japan still need to resolve a number of issues, including the technical intern policy.

In addition, Japan and Vietnam need to maintain and deepen their relationship by cooperating more in areas such as sustainable economy, environmental protection and regional security. He expressed his belief that cooperation in the economic and security fields between the two countries will continue to develop in the future.

In addition, Dr. Shoji also noted that there are many issues that affect not only Vietnam and Japan, but also the whole world, such as climate change. Each country is facing different serious problems, such as the environment. Therefore, he said that Japan and Vietnam should cooperate to solve these problems together and this could be a potential area of cooperation in the future.

(Source: Tin Tuc Newspaper)

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