President Tran Dai Quang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed that the two countries’ relationship has grown robustly across the board and it should be further expanded.

They made the remarks at their talks on the sidelines of the 24th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Lima, Peru’s capital city, on November 20. 

The leaders expressed their pleasure that the formation of the extensive strategic partnership in 2014 allowed the relationship to well serve practical interests of the countries’ peoples as well as peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region. 

They also noted increasing people-to-people exchanges. 

President Quang affirmed Vietnam always considers Japan as the leading and long-term partner and wished to further deepen the extensive strategic partnership with Japan. 

On behalf of the Party and State, President Quang transferred the invitation to the Emperor and Empress of Japan to visit Vietnam at the beginning of 2017. 

He said the trip is a symbol and makes a new landmark in the friendship and cooperation between the two countries and Vietnam will closely work with Japan to make meticulous preparations to ensure the success of the trip. 

Here commended Japan to further boost cooperation in the fields of its strengths, such as infrastructure, agriculture, support industry, climate change response, handling environmental incidents, which Vietnam has demand.

Expressing his joy to meet President Tran Dai Quang for the first time, PM Shinzo Abe affirmed Japan wants to boost multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, especially in high-quality infrastructure.

PM Shinzo Abe announced Japan’s decision to provide Vietnam with some fire-fighting and rescue vehicles and continue supporting Vietnam’s law enforcement forces at sea. 

Appreciating the close coordination between the two countries at multilateral forums, PM Shinzo Abe affirmed that Japan supports and actively assists Vietnam in successfully organising the APEC Year 2017. 

Onthe occasion, the two leaders exchanged their views on international and regional issues, including the East Sea issue. 

They shared their view-points on resolving disputes via peaceful measures based on international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), contributing to maintaining peace and stability in the region and in the world.