At the meeting.

Ogawa Toshio is leading a delegation of the House of Councillors of Japan on a working visit to Vietnam from December 17 – 20. 

The NA Vice Chairwoman affirmed that Vietnam always considers Japan a trustful partner and a leading economic partner. She cited statistics that showed two-way trade had reached 36.7 billion USD this year to November. Japan is the largest provider of official development assistance to Vietnam and the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam.

According to Phong, Vietnam and Japan have many complementary strengths, hence many opportunities to boost their cooperation, especially when both of them are members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

She noted that cooperation between the Vietnamese NA and Japan’s House of Councillors, as well as between parliamentarians of the two countries has constantly been strengthened.

To further boost the partnership between the legislative bodies of the two countries, Vice Chairwoman Phong proposed that the two sides maintain high-level visits and meetings, and support the two Governments in implementing signed agreements and cooperative programmes across the fields, while coordinating closely at international and regional forums.

She asked the Japanese side to coordinate with and back Vietnam when the country serves as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020-2021, Chair of ASEAN and Chair of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in 2020.

The Japanese guest highlighted that since the establishment of diplomatic relationship in 1973, the Vietnam-Japan ties have unceasingly been strengthened and developed in all aspects, from politics to culture and people-to-people exchange. The two countries have lifted their ties to an extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia.

Ogawa highly valued Vietnam’s material and spiritual support for Japan in times of natural disasters.

He expressed the wish that the two countries will exchange more visits and share experience in various fields.

The two countries should further promote cooperation and exchange between their legislative bodies, friendship parliamentary groups and parliamentarians, he said./.VNA