Prime Minister meets Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba for first time in Vientiane

Pham congratulated Ishiba on his election as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Japan, affirming Viet Nam always sees Japan as a trusted and long-term partner of top importance.

He voiced his support for Japan to make positive contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister underscored the importance of promoting economic cooperation, the key pillar of the Viet Nam-Japan relations, pledging to continue creating favorable conditions for more than 2,000 Japanese businesses in the Southeast Asian country.

He suggested Japan consider new ODA loans for Viet Nam's strategic infrastructure, urban and high-speed railway, climate change adaptation projects; expand cooperation to new fronts like digital transformation, green transition, circular economy, semiconductor, artificial intelligence.

Pham called on both sides to deepen labor, high-quality workforce training, and local-to-local cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

He promised to coordinate closely with Japan for the success of the Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai.

Prime Minister Ishiba, for his part, highly valued Pham's contributions to the development of the Viet Nam-Japan relations, reassuring that Viet Nam is a key partner in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Initiative, expressing his wish to further deepen the Viet Nam-Japan relations in an increasingly practical manner.

Ishiba pledged to continue creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese guest workers and interns to learn and work in Japan.

Japan stands ready to assist Viet Nam in high-quality workforce training, reiterated the Japanese Prime Minister.

Both sides agreed to further strengthen political trust through exchanges and contacts at all levels, beef up defense and security cooperation, effectively implement the existing dialogue mechanisms, and work together to address the common challenges in the region.

Comparing notes on regional and international issues of shared concern, the two leaders agreed to enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums such as ASEAN, the United Nations and Mekong Sub-region mechanisms.

On the East Sea issue, both sides underscored the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, settling disputes through peaceful measures in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Pham took the occasion to convey General Secretary and President To Lam's invitation to invite the Japanese Emperor and Empress to visit Viet Nam.

He also expressed his wish to welcome Prime Minister Ishiba to Viet Nam soon./.