Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to Japan from November 22-25 - Photo: VGP
At the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will lead a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to attend the expanded Group of Seven (G7) Summit and work in Japan from May 19 to 21, 2023.
The importance of the G7 Group and its Presidency to Vietnam
The G7 was established in 1976 as an alliance of seven advanced industrialized countries: the UK, the US, Germany, Japan, France, Canada and Italy. Together with the Group of 20 leading developed and emerging economies (G20), the G7 plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global structure and governance.
The G7 is also a gathering of voices, reflecting the similar views and interests of developed countries in solving common issues of international security and promoting discussions to solve global challenges. G7 members collectively own more than half of the world's assets, regularly accounting for about 30% of global GDP, with a market of about 10% of the world's total population.
The G7 Summit is held annually, focusing on exchanging, promoting and solving global issues from economics, politics and society, including finance, growth, technology, green growth, digital transformation, epidemics, gender equality, hot spots and conflicts around the world...
The G7 Summit was held within the framework of the G7 Summit, with the participation of guest countries and international organizations, to strongly promote the participation and contributions of developing countries, and strengthen the G7's partnership with developing countries in addressing global challenges.
The 49th G7 Summit took place from May 19-22 in Hiroshima, Japan, with the expanded G7 Summit from May 20-21.
Guests at this year's expanded G7 Summit include senior leaders from eight countries and six international organizations (the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Asian Development Bank).
This year's expanded G7 Summit includes three sessions, with the following themes: "Cooperation in dealing with multiple crises" (focusing on the topics of food, health, development, gender equality), "Joint efforts for a sustainable planet" (focusing on the topics of climate, environment and energy) and "Towards a peaceful, stable and prosperous world" (focusing on the topics of peace, respect for international law, multilateral cooperation).
The summit is expected to adopt the "Hiroshima Action Plan for Self-Reliant Global Food Security." This is the first time the expanded G7 Summit has adopted a joint document.
This is an important multilateral conference, taking place in the context of the world's political, economic and security situation continuing to develop in a complex and unpredictable manner, affecting the security and development environment of countries in many ways. The conference is hosted by Japan in its role as Chair of the G7 Group in 2023, and Japan is also a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2023-2024 term.
On March 20, 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio invited Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to attend the 2023 G7 Summit. This is the third time Vietnam has attended the G7 Summit and the second time at the invitation of Japan.
Previously, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the G7 Summit on May 26-28, 2016 in Japan and the G7 Summit on June 9, 2018 in Canada. Vietnam is also one of two Southeast Asian countries invited by Japan to attend this year's G7 Summit.
This shows the importance that Japan, the G7 Chair in 2023 in particular, and the G7 Group in general attach to Vietnam's position and role in the region. Vietnam's participation affirms its role, status and contribution to the common effort to promote cooperation, maintain growth and address common challenges of the international community.
Vietnam-Japan relations are at their best in history.
The Prime Minister's working trip to Japan takes place in the context of 2023 being the year the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. In recent years, relations between Vietnam and Japan have developed rapidly.
Japan was the first G7 country to welcome the Vietnamese General Secretary to visit (in 1995), the first G7 country to establish a strategic partnership with Vietnam (in 2009), the first G7 country to recognize Vietnam's market economy status (in 2011), and the first G7 country to invite Vietnam to attend the expanded G7 Summit (May 2016).
Currently, the relationship between the two countries is at its best stage in history since the establishment of diplomatic relations, with high trust. The two countries' senior leaders maintain regular visits and contacts at international and regional forums.
Japan is Vietnam's leading economic partner and the first G7 country to recognize Vietnam's market economy status (October 2011). Japan is the largest ODA donor, the second largest labor cooperation partner, the third largest investor, the third largest tourism partner, and the fourth largest trade partner of Vietnam.
In the first 3 months of 2023, the import-export turnover of the two countries reached over 10.6 billion USD, down 5% over the same period in 2022. Japan has 5,050 valid FDI projects in Vietnam with a total registered investment capital of 69.4 billion USD, ranking 3rd out of 143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.
Regarding official development assistance (ODA), Japan is the largest provider of yen loans to Vietnam, with the total loan value as of the end of fiscal year 2020 being 2,812.8 billion yen (equivalent to 27.5 billion USD), accounting for more than 26% of the total signed foreign loan capital of the Government).
Cooperation in responding to climate change continues to develop strongly and substantially, with Japan continuously providing ODA in recent years for Vietnam's climate change response projects.
Since 1992, Vietnam has sent more than 350,000 interns to Japan. Vietnam currently ranks first in the number of foreign interns in Japan with more than 200,000 people.
Japan is one of the largest non-refundable aid providers for Vietnam's education and training sector. The number of Vietnamese students studying in Japan is currently over 51,000. Japan is cooperating to upgrade 4 Vietnamese universities to high-quality universities; is cooperating to build the Vietnam-Japan University to train high-quality human resources for Vietnam in the fields of science and technology, management and services; and supporting Vietnam to teach Japanese at some primary and secondary schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In 2019, the number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam reached 951,962, ranking third, up 15.2% over the same period last year. There are currently about 23,000 Japanese citizens in Vietnam.
Local cooperation between the two countries has been strongly promoted, a bright spot in bilateral relations in recent times, with more than 70 cooperation documents signed and still much room for development.
Cooperation in COVID-19 prevention, Japan provides Vietnam with non-refundable aid of more than 7.4 million doses of vaccine, more than 4 billion yen to provide equipment, technical support, and improve the healthcare system. Our government, parliament and localities support more than 1.2 million masks for Japan. From October 11, 2022, Japan has relaxed regulations to allow Vietnamese tourists to enter the country.
The Vietnamese community in Japan reached 476,346 people (accounting for 16%, second only to China), according to statistics from the Japanese Ministry of Justice, as of June 2022. Vietnamese people currently live, work and study in all 47 provinces and centrally-run cities of Japan.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to Japan will contribute to further strengthening trust and promoting the Vietnam-Japan Extensive Strategic Partnership, while promoting key cooperation contents such as economy, trade, investment, new-generation ODA, high-quality infrastructure, digital transformation, green transformation, energy transformation, etc.; enhancing coordination, sharing stances, and cooperation on regional and international issues of mutual concern.
One of the highlights of the business trip was the Vietnam-Japan Business Forum with the participation of more than 50 Japanese economic organizations, associations and enterprises.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to attend the expanded G7 Summit and work in Japan will contribute to strongly implementing the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, diversification and multilateralization in accordance with the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, Directive 25 of the Secretariat on promoting and elevating multilateral diplomacy to 2030, and Directive 15 of the Secretariat on economic diplomacy to serve national development to 2033.
The trip will convey the message of a dynamic and innovative Vietnam, building an independent and self-reliant economy associated with deep, substantive and effective international integration, proactively and positively participating, and contributing responsibly to peace, development and the common concerns of the international community.
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