Farewell ceremony for General Secretary and President To Lam and his wife at Haneda International Airport, Tokyo. Photo: VNA
There was strong agreement on many important points.
According to Minister Le Hoai Trung, this is Comrade To Lam’s first visit to Japan in his capacity as General Secretary and President of Vietnam. It is also the first visit by a General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam to Japan in 11 years.
The Japanese Royal Family, Government, and Parliament extended a warm and special welcome to the General Secretary, President, and his wife, along with the high-level Vietnamese delegation, filled with sincere and heartfelt sentiments and many special gestures. This demonstrates the high regard they have for Vietnam’s position and role, as well as the bilateral relationship.
Both sides reached a high degree of consensus on many important issues, which were clearly reflected in the Vietnam-Japan Joint Vision Statement for the future. A key and prominent aspect is the transition of the two countries to a new phase of their relationship: a partnership of companionship, co-creation, mutual benefit, and a focus on high-quality growth, strategic autonomy, and self-reliance. This aligns with the new stage of development and the new development requirements of each country.
General Secretary and President To Lam and his wife Ngo Phuong Ly depart Tokyo, successfully concluding their official visit to Japan. Photo: VNA.
The Vietnam-Japan Joint Vision Statement emphasizes key cooperation frameworks, focusing on priority and interconnected areas such as science and technology and innovation, education and training and human resource development, production and supply chain linkages, finance, investment and development assistance.
Along with that, cooperation frameworks in finance, investment, energy, digital transformation , semiconductors, and many other fields have also been concretized. The aim is to meet the requirements of the two countries’ development in the coming period.
The visit of the General Secretary and President to Japan has made a significant contribution to elevating the relationship between the two countries, enhancing mutual understanding and strengthening cooperation in many fields at both bilateral and multilateral levels, in line with the spirit of companionship and co-creation, consistent with the development strategies of both sides, meeting the interests of the people of both countries, and making a positive contribution to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.
The significant results achieved during the visit also contribute to promoting cooperative relations through Party, State, Parliament, and people-to-people channels between the two countries in the new phase.
Establishing new directions for cooperation.
The outstanding success of General Secretary and President To Lam’s official visit to Japan has established a new direction for cooperation in Vietnam-Japan relations; opening up many new opportunities for cooperation in important areas where both sides have strengths and needs. The success of the visit has created new impetus to transform the commitments and agreements reached into a phase of extensive and effective implementation. This will contribute positively to achieving the growth and strategic autonomy goals of both countries.
According to Minister Le Hoai Trung, the most important direction is that we need to fully understand the cooperation orientations clearly expressed in the Vietnam-Japan Joint Vision Statement in the coming period, as partners in collaboration and co-creation. Previously, Vietnam may have only produced a few goods and exported them. In the coming period, the two countries will jointly research and develop, jointly produce, and jointly find supply sources, thereby participating more deeply in regional and global supply chains.
Both sides need to effectively promote cooperative relations through all channels—Party, State, Parliament, and people—contributing to strengthening political trust and mutual understanding, and deepening, making the relationship between the two countries more substantive and effective.
Based on the Joint Vision Statement on Vietnam-Japan relations and the commitments and agreements of high-level leaders of the two countries during the visit, Vietnamese and Japanese ministries, departments, localities, agencies, and businesses need to coordinate closely to develop and concretize the results of the visit into specific programs, plans, and projects with clear objectives, timelines, and responsibilities.
The agencies of both countries need to strengthen regular reviews, urge and closely monitor the cooperation situation to promote it and at the same time resolve any difficulties that may arise.
At the same time, the two countries need to strengthen coordination in international and regional forums, especially at the United Nations, APEC, ASEAN, the Mekong sub-region, and other multilateral forums in which they participate. Through this, the two countries can contribute to promoting multilateralism, dialogue, building trust, respecting international law, and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development.
During the visit, the two sides also signed 11 agreements between ministries, departments, and localities, and approximately 60 cooperation agreements between businesses. These are important foundations in areas where both sides have strengths and needs.
MINH DUY
AloJapan.com