Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan relations.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan relations.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just successfully completed a working trip to attend the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan relations and the Asia Net Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Summit as well as engage in bilateral activities in Japan at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s working trip affirmed the desire of Vietnam, ASEAN countries, and Japan to cooperate and build a brighter future in ASEAN-Japan relations on the foundation of the achievements gained in the past 50 years. At the same time, the trip contributed to expanding cooperation between Vietnam and other countries, international partners and the international community in overcoming challenges, responding to climate change and promoting green growth.
Trusted partners, substantive cooperation
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh joined ASEAN and Japanese leaders in a summit to mark a half-century of relations between Japan and ASEAN.
Affirming the importance of the relationship of solidarity and cooperation with Japan — ASEAN’s long-standing and most trusted partner — the leaders of ASEAN countries shared the desire to jointly contribute to each other’s development, as well as to peace, stability, and prosperity for the entire region.
After 50 years of continuous consolidation and development, ASEAN-Japan cooperation has now expanded to all fields. Specifically, at the 26th ASEAN-Japan Summit held in Jakarta, Indonesia (September 2023), the two sides upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of relations, the leaders adopted the “Joint Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation: Trusted Partners” and its implementation plan as the foundation for implementing the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time.
Looking to the future, the two sides agreed to develop the relationship in a practical and effective manner, commensurate with the stature of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, thus bringing substantial benefits to the people. The two sides also agreed to make efforts to maintain and promote trade and investment exchanges, stabilise production and supply chains in the region, and create more favourable conditions for exporting to each other’s markets.
The leaders of Japan and ASEAN pose for a group photo before the opening of the Summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations.
The leaders of Japan and ASEAN pose for a group photo before the opening of the Summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations.
Leaders of ASEAN countries praised Japan for considering ASEAN as a priority in Japan’s foreign policy and its Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). Japan also pledged to support and assist ASEAN in building the ASEAN Community and promoting its central role in the region.
Based on the development of the bilateral ties over the past 50 years, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed three major orientations to develop the relations into an exemplary model and a positive factor with an important role to play in ensuring a peaceful and stable environment for development and win-win cooperation in the region.
The three major orientations:
+ He suggested that the two sides should enhance their strategic coordination and join hands to build an open, inclusive, and rule-based regional structure, with ASEAN playing a central role. He said Japan should continue raising its voice to support ASEAN’s stance on the East Sea/South China Sea issue, assist Mekong sub-regional countries in effectively responding to non-traditional security challenges, promptly resume the Mekong cooperation mechanism, and prioritise programmes and projects to support sustainable development in the spirit of “leaving no one behind.”
+ He laid stress on investment in humans — the subject, target, driving force, and resources for development in general and the relations between ASEAN and Japan in particular — and welcomed cultural-social exchange activities and people-to-people exchanges in the framework of the ASEAN-Japan heart-to-heart partnership.
+ He proposed that the two sides should concretise the “heart-to-heart” partnership into an “action-to-action” and “feeling-to-effectiveness” relationship, with practical and specific cooperation projects, programmes, and plans under the framework of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends the Summit commemorating the 50 years of ASEAN-Japan relations.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends the Summit commemorating the 50 years of ASEAN-Japan relations.
With four connections, the Prime Minister proposed that ASEAN and Japan should:
+ Enhance connection in economy, trade and investment, which he described as the key and motive for the development of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership;
+ Promote connections in infrastructure, especially strategic ones;
+ Expand connection in new areas, especially innovation, digital transformation, green economy, circular economy, intellectual economy and smart agriculture, turning them into new growth locomotives and new vitality for the ASEAN-Japan cooperation in the future;
+ Prioritise connections carrying out sustainable development goals and not sacrifice social progress, justice and the environment for pure economic growth.
With political trust as the foundation, economic cooperation as the driver, and people-to-people exchange as the centre of the ASEAN-Japan relations, the Prime Minister expressed his hope that the ties will overcome all challenges and go further over the next 50 years.
Drastic action, sustainable growth
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, high-level leaders of ASEAN countries, Japan and Australia attended the first-ever Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Summit in Tokyo.
Highlighting the significance of this summit, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio affirmed that the summit strives to boost the expansion of the clean energy market and advanced technologies, foster development and policy coordination on energy transition tailored to the situation and conditions of each country, and advance public-private partnerships for energy transition in the region.
AZEC is crucial in promoting innovation, and supporting the implementation and building of transparent, flexible, robust, and reliable supply chains.
ASEAN countries and Australia have all commended Japan's initiative and the organisation of this high-level gathering for the first time, considering AZEC as an important forum for member countries to share information on their efforts. This allows them to maximise regional cooperation potential to support countries in the region in the energy transition in line with each nation's circumstances. At the same time, they are committed to closely coordinating with each other to achieve the three goals - reducing carbon emissions, ensuring energy security, and furthering economic growth in Asia.
Leading the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam attending the Summit, PM Pham Minh Chinh delivered a strong message of “shared will, high determination and drastic action, towards a developed Asia of zero emissions”.
Affirming responsibility to the world and all people, the Prime Minister stressed that Vietnam has carried out many drastic solutions with new awareness, thinking, methodology, and approaches to implement commitments at COP26. The notable solutions are developing national strategies and plans such as the National Climate Change Strategy, Green Growth Strategy, Power Plan VIII towards mainstream renewable energy, the development of 1 million hectares of high-quality rice and low emissions.
The Prime Minister also said that Vietnam has developed and implemented the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), issued the plan to implement the JETP and announced the Plan to mobilise resources to implement JETP. In addition, the country is building institutions and continues to improve the legal framework, including the Petroleum Law, Land Law and Electricity Law, in the direction of promoting the development of renewable energy in line with market mechanisms, developing biomass electricity and selling carbon credits.
At the Summit, PM Pham Minh Chinh proposed areas of cooperation that the parties need to focus on in the near future to contribute to realising AZEC's goals:
- Researching, developing and diversifying clean energy sources and new technologies, and promoting technology transfer to ensure clean energy is widely accessible and affordable in Asia.
- Ensuring clean energy conversion suitable to each country's conditions. At the same time, the Prime Minister said it is necessary to further promote new climate finance mechanisms, public-private cooperation and cooperation in the private sector to create conditions for developing countries to access preferential capital sources.
- Strengthening cooperation in training high-quality human resources, smart management and perfecting modern, appropriate and effective market institutions for each country.
Deep relationships, expanding potential
Within the framework of the trip, in addition to meetings and working sessions with senior leaders of ASEAN member countries, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received ministers, parliamentarians, and the leaders of provinces, organisations, and leading Japanese businesses and corporations.
In the spirit of “affection, sincerity, trust, substance, and effectiveness”, within the talks between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the two sides agreed to closely coordinate and direct each other’s ministries and branches to concretise the contents of the joint declaration on upgrading relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world, as approved by the two countries’ senior leaders last November.
The two Prime Ministers highly appreciated the positive developments in many key economic cooperation projects between the two countries in recent times and agreed to expand cooperation in the fields of digital transformation, green transformation, and response to climate change. At the same time, the two PMs agreed to continue strengthening economic links between the two countries and promote cooperation to ensure economic security. A joint coordination group will be established between the two Governments in the near future to promote the progress and effectiveness of a number of economic projects that are being implemented.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Vietnam-Japan Economic Forum with the theme “Economic relations in a new era — Comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world”.
Speaking at the Forum, PM Chinh emphasised that the recently upgraded relations between the two countries provide an important political foundation for the two sides to continue expanding the space for cooperation. He called on Japanese businesses to continue to successfully invest in Vietnam, emphasising that the success of investors is also the success of Vietnam.
At the forum, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh witnessed the exchange of 30 cooperation agreements between Vietnamese and Japanese ministries, sectors, and localities in various fields, including the development of industrial infrastructure, urban areas, trade centres, green hydrogen production, battery production, energy, finance, digital transformation, and human resources training.
Japan hopes that the two countries will develop together while contributing to the common development of the region. Japan will continue to assist Vietnam in industrialisation and modernisation as well as in building an independent and self-reliant economy that deeply integrates into the global community towards the successful realisation of its industrialisation and modernisation strategy.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio witnessed the exchange of cooperation documents between the two countries, which involved the fourth loan agreement for Ho Chi Minh City's urban railway construction project, the Japan Development Scholarship (JDS) project, and the equipment supply project for Vietnam’s K Hospital, with a total sum of 42.3 billion JPY (nearly 300 million USD).
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio.
The talks between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.
The talks between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.
The two Prime Ministers witnessed the exchange of cooperation agreements between ministries and sectors of the two countries.
The two Prime Ministers witnessed the exchange of cooperation agreements between ministries and sectors of the two countries.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and high-ranking Vietnamese delegation’s working trip to Japan to attend the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, the Commemorative Summit and the Asian Net Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Leaders' Meeting, and other bilateral activities in Japan has contributed to strengthening relations between Japan, ASEAN and Vietnam, as well as between Vietnam and its partners. As such, the trip has helped to convey the message of Vietnam’s friendliness, sincerity, trustworthiness, and readiness to strengthen friendship, dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation, thus contributing to building a peaceful and stable regional and international environment.
Published: December 2023
Production managers: CHU HONG THANG - PHAM TRUONG SON
Content: NINH SON - HONG DUY
Design: TRUNG HUNG - DUY LONG
Photos: NDO, VNA, VGP
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