Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds talks with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio

This is the first Vietnam-Japan high-level meeting held in Hiroshima, Prime Minister Kishida's hometown, and the fifth meeting between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Kishida in more than a year.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated Prime Minister Kishida and host country Japan on successfully organizing the G7 Summit and the expanded G7 Summit; highly appreciated Japan's coordinating role in reaching consensus in addressing global challenges such as food security, emission reduction, etc.

Prime Minister Kishida expressed his pleasure at meeting Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh again and welcomed the active and effective participation and contribution of the Vietnamese delegation to the success of the expanded G7 Summit; affirming that Vietnam has a leading position in implementing Japan's foreign policy in the region.

In an atmosphere of friendship, cordiality and trust, the two leaders expressed satisfaction with the strong, comprehensive and substantive development of bilateral relations in recent times; agreed on major directions and specific measures to promote the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia to new heights.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to enhance political trust by promoting high-level visits and contacts in 2023 - the year marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic relations. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conveyed the invitation to visit Vietnam from the leaders of the Vietnamese Party and State to the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

The two sides agreed to promote defense-security cooperation in the fields of overcoming war consequences, human resource training, defense technology transfer, and cyber security; promote exchanges on the content of Japan's support for Vietnam in industrialization, modernization, and building an independent and self-reliant economy; and affirm the strengthening of economic links between the two economies through promoting investment and trade cooperation.

The two leaders highly appreciated the two sides' completion of capital commitment procedures for the new generation of official development assistance (ODA) program for economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic with a scale of 50 billion yen and agreed to assign ministries and branches in charge to discuss the possibility of Japan providing new generation ODA with high incentives, simple and flexible procedures for large-scale strategic infrastructure development projects in Vietnam such as the North-South high-speed railway, urban railway construction, climate change response, digital transformation, green transformation and healthcare; affirmed to direct ministries and branches of the two countries to promote the progress of a number of ODA cooperation projects such as Cho Ray 2 Hospital, the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien urban railway No. 1 construction project. Regarding the Nghi Son Oil Refinery project, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that businesses of the two countries actively discuss in the spirit of harmonious benefits, shared risks, and removing difficulties of the project.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed that the two sides coordinate to promote a new wave of Japanese investment in Vietnam in the fields of high-tech industry, energy conversion, improving production capacity and competitiveness for Vietnam to participate more deeply and widely in the supply chain of Japanese enterprises and the global supply chain; proposed that Japan encourage strategic investors in the clean energy and renewable energy sectors of Vietnam; support Vietnam in increasing the value chain of agricultural products through technology transfer, improving capacity in the field of distribution and processing; promote procedures and coordinate the early announcement of Japanese grapes in Vietnam and Vietnamese green-skinned grapefruit in Japan.

The Prime Minister also proposed that the Japanese Government facilitate and simplify visa procedures to promote tourism cooperation between the two countries; promptly implement study tours, pay attention to and create favorable conditions for the community of nearly 500,000 Vietnamese people living, studying and working in Japan, becoming a bridge in the cooperative relationship between the two countries.

The two sides affirmed to coordinate their stances on issues of mutual concern at multilateral and regional forums such as ASEAN, the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, etc. Prime Minister Kishida invited Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to visit Japan again and attend the ASEAN-Japan Summit in December 2023.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two leaders emphasized the importance of ensuring maritime and aviation security and safety, resolving all disputes and disagreements by peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and promptly completing an effective and substantive Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC).

Before the talks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio witnessed the exchange of documents signing three ODA cooperation projects with a total value of 61 billion yen (about 500 million USD), including: New generation ODA budget support program for post-Covid-19 socio-economic recovery and development, public transport infrastructure improvement project in Binh Duong province, and agricultural development infrastructure improvement project in Lam Dong province.

This was the last activity of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh during his working trip to attend the expanded G7 Summit and work in Japan. In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation returned home, successfully concluding the working trip.

VNA

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