Emperor of Japan Akihito and Empress Michiko receive President Truong Tan Sang and his wife__Photo: Nguyen Khang/VNA
Japan and Vietnam have decided to elevate bilateral relations into an “extensive strategic partnership”. This was announced in a joint statement issued on March 18 after a meeting between President Truong Tan Sang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Under the joint statement, issued during President Sang’s four-day official state visit to Japan, the Vietnamese side proposed an early commencement of negotiations on treaties on mutual legal assistance, extradition, and the transfer of people sentenced under law. The Japanese hoped that Vietnam would consider joining multilateral treaties, including the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters.
Japanese Prime Minister said Japan would continue to work with Vietnam in six key areas under the Vietnam-Japan cooperation framework through 2020 with a vision to 2030, including agro-fishery processing, electronics, automobiles, agricultural machinery, environmental protection, energy conservation and shipbuilding.
President Sang said he was grateful for the signing of the Exchange of Notes for the second half of the 2013 fiscal year involving five projects worth around USD 1.2 billion.
The two sides decided to strengthen cooperation in promoting the development and operation of infrastructure in Vietnam and implementing the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative (phase 5), on improving Vietnam’s investment environment to promote Japanese investment in Vietnam.
They welcomed the signing of the Record of Discussion on Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan; the Memorandum on Cooperation in the field of healthcare between Vietnam’s Ministry of Health and Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; and the Strategic Cooperation Program on Education between the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The two sides confirmed that they would continue to work together for implementation of the project on a second nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan province of Vietnam.
They said they intended to work closely on negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).-