Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded his official two-day visit to Vietnam on January 17. 

During the stay, the Japanese PM held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc, had meetings with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Tran Dai Quang and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. 

Abe also co-chaired the Vietnam-Japan business talk with PM Phuc, met with head of the Party Central Committee’s Organisation Commission and chair of the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group Pham Minh Chinh, the Director of the Vietnam National University-Hanoi and lecturers and students of the Vietnam-Japan University. 

During meetings, the two sides reached consensus on major orientations and specific measures to further develop the bilateral strategic partnership in a comprehensive, substantive and effective manner in the time ahead. 

The two sides agreed to continue enhancing political trust through maintaining high-level visits and contacts and optimizing dialogue mechanisms. 

They vowed to collaborate closely for the success of the Vietnam visit by the Japanese Emperor and Empress this spring. 

They also consented to strengthen substantive cooperation in security-defence, including in the areas of demining and capacity enhancing for law enforcement at sea. 

The two sides achieved a common awareness about promoting connectivity between the two economies through encouraging investment, trade, ODA and cooperation in mutually supplementary fields such as agriculture and labour.   

PM Abe announced Japan’s approval of the import of red-flesh dragon fruit from Vietnam while PM Phuc announced Vietnam’s licensing of the import of pear from Japan.

Japan pledged to continue to assist Vietnam’s socio-economic development through the provision of ODA, with a commitment of an additional 123 billion JPY (1.05 billion USD) in ODA loans in the 2016 fiscal year. 

Discussing international and regional issues of mutual concern, the two sides affirmed their close coordination at international and regional forums. 

They agreed on the importance of ensuring peace, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight, urging related sides to refrain from actions that can cause tension and militarization resulting in change of the status quo in the East Sea. 

The two sides called for the settlement of disputes by peaceful measures with full respect for diplomatic and legal process, without the use of or threat to use force, while obeying international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and working for an early formation of a Code of Conduct on the East Sea (COC). 

The two PMs witnessed the signing of several documents on cooperation.

VNA