From emotion to action

At 8 PM on December 18th, as the plane carrying Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-level Vietnamese delegation departed Japan in the 2-degree Celsius cold and biting winds blowing through Haneda International Airport, there were some very heartwarming moments...

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, along with ASEAN and Japanese leaders, attended the opening ceremony of the Summit commemorating 50 years of ASEAN-Japan relations. (Photo: Nhat Bac)

Taking place over four days with approximately 40 activities on a packed schedule, the working trip to Japan from December 15-18, attended by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-level Vietnamese delegation to attend the ASEAN-Japan 50th Anniversary Summit and participate in bilateral activities, achieved results that were both strategic and long-term, as well as very concrete.

Vietnamese imprint

In his speeches at the Conference, the Prime Minister consistently emphasized that relations with Japan are among ASEAN's most successful relationships. According to the Prime Minister, "in the face of headwinds and unprecedented challenges, ASEAN and Japan need to further strengthen solidarity and enhance cooperation to make the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership a model of positive action, playing a crucial role in creating a peaceful, stable, and mutually beneficial environment for development in the region."

Based on a summary of three profound lessons learned over the past 50 years, the Prime Minister proposed three major directions and four specific connections, further strengthening ASEAN-Japan strategic coordination, and jointly promoting the building of an open, rules-based regional architecture with ASEAN playing a central role.

The Prime Minister emphasized, "Now, our task is to concretize the relationship from heart to heart into a relationship from action to action and from emotion to effect with practical and specific cooperation projects, programs, and plans so that the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework, with its solid foundation like Mount Fuji and vast cooperation opportunities like the South China Sea, truly comes to life."

It can be said that the Prime Minister's participation contributed to the overall success of the Conference. Both sides reached a high degree of consensus on cooperative measures to "co-build" the future economy and society, boost trade and investment while strengthening supply chains, facilitate the export of goods to each other's markets, and further promote emerging areas of cooperation. The Prime Minister and ASEAN leaders highly appreciated Japan's announcement of a 40 billion Yen support package for people-to-people exchange programs over the next 10 years, 15 billion Yen for joint international exchange and research programs, and its commitment to mobilizing 35 billion USD over the next five years from public and private funds to promote connectivity cooperation, support small and medium-sized enterprises, digital transformation, energy transition, and climate change response.

Notably, both sides agreed to further deepen political and security cooperation, and enhance coordination on international issues to address regional and global challenges. Japan affirmed its support for ASEAN's efforts to fully and effectively implement the DOC Declaration and to expedite the completion of an effective and legally binding COC Code of Conduct in accordance with international law and UNCLOS 1982.

The specific contributions and recommendations of the Head of Government of Vietnam accurately and effectively addressed the needs of ASEAN-Japan cooperation in the new development phase, and were highly appreciated by the Conference, as reflected in many contents of the "Vision Statement" and the "Implementation Plan for the Statement" adopted at the closing session of the Conference.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the ASEAN-Japan Summit commemorating the 50th anniversary. (Photo: Nhat Bac)

Creating a new wave of investment

On the bilateral level, this was the first visit to Japan by a high-ranking Vietnamese leader, taking place just two weeks after the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. It was also the second time this year that the Prime Minister visited Japan to attend a major international conference. Thirty meetings and working sessions between the Prime Minister and Japanese political and business leaders took place in a sincere, trusting, substantive, and effective atmosphere.

At forums and working sessions, the Head of Government frankly requested Japan to provide ODA to Vietnam with "more favorable terms, simpler procedures, and faster implementation." Referring to several specific cooperation projects that still face obstacles between the two countries, the Prime Minister affirmed that he would direct relevant agencies to actively coordinate with partners to resolve them definitively, such as the restructuring of the Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Plant project, the determination to implement the O Mon gas project (Block B), and the early disbursement of the fourth loan tranche for the Ho Chi Minh City urban railway project (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien section)...

"I look forward to your actions," the Prime Minister urged investors from Japan to invest more strongly in Vietnam in new technologies, semiconductor industry, chip manufacturing, digital transformation, green transformation, environmental technology… especially in technology transfer to Vietnam.

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet stated that perhaps the most significant aspect of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit was the sincere, affectionate, trusting, substantive, and effective atmosphere in the bilateral relationship. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's visit yielded many substantial and important results, further deepening political trust, strengthening good personal relationships with Japanese political leaders, and serving as the first step towards concretizing a new cooperation framework.

In economic cooperation, through the Prime Minister's statements and proposals, a new impetus will be created, strengthening the participation of Vietnamese businesses in the global supply chains of Japanese companies, especially in the fields of automobile manufacturing, electronics, medical equipment, textiles, etc. During the talks and meetings, the Prime Minister and leaders from various sectors of Japan affirmed their continued support for Vietnam in successfully implementing industrialization and modernization, and building an independent and self-reliant economy.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in Tokyo on December 16, 2023. (Photo: Nhat Bac)

At the Vietnam-Japan Economic Forum, attended by nearly 600 Japanese businesses, the Prime Minister frankly urged Japanese businesses to increase their investment in Vietnam. The Prime Minister witnessed the exchange of over 30 cooperation documents between ministries, agencies, and businesses of the two countries, worth nearly 3 billion USD, and the signing of three ODA cooperation projects worth over 200 million USD, bringing the total value of ODA cooperation between the two countries in 2023 to nearly 800 million USD, the highest since 2017.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister's visit also promoted human resource linkages, strengthened local cooperation, and fostered people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. In the spirit of "from emotion to action," upon arriving in Japan, the Prime Minister visited Gunma Prefecture, home to a large Vietnamese workforce, and attended an economic forum with the Governor of Gunma Prefecture. The Prime Minister also met with the Governors of five Japanese prefectures – localities with close economic ties to Vietnam – to promote and encourage cooperation between the two countries, not only in investment, trade, and labor, but also to boost the establishment of Japanese production facilities in Vietnamese localities.

In emerging areas such as energy transition, digital transformation, and innovation, through meetings and interactions with the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Japanese businesses expressed high interest in Vietnam's policies and needs, and made strong commitments to promoting investment and cooperation with Vietnam in these new fields. More than half of the documents signed between ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses of the two countries at the Vietnam-Japan Economic Forum belong to new areas of cooperation, including projects such as smart city development, green transformation, digital transformation, logistics, artificial intelligence applications, and robotics.

This could be the start of a wave of investment by Japanese businesses into new sectors in Vietnam in the near future.

During his visit to attend the ASEAN-Japan 50th Anniversary Summit, on the morning of December 17th in Tokyo, Japan, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a working breakfast with Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Prime Minister Hun Manet of the Kingdom of Cambodia. (Photo: Duong Giang)

With ASEAN families

On the occasion of attending the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a working breakfast with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet; and met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

During the meetings, the Prime Minister and ASEAN leaders continued to exchange views on ways to promote connectivity and economic cooperation, trilateral and quadrilateral cooperation programs on tourism, etc. The Prime Ministers of Vietnam and Singapore agreed to expand the VSIP industrial park network to localities far from the central areas of Vietnam, and to encourage the transformation of traditional VSIP parks into smart, green, low-carbon energy-integrated industrial parks (VSEP).

In particular, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Lao and Cambodian counterparts discussed establishing a mechanism for trilateral meetings to realize the results achieved at the Summit Meeting of the Heads of the Cambodian-Lao-Vietnamese Parties.

With practical, effective, and concrete results achieved, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working visit concluded 2023, the year marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan, with a resounding success marked by approximately 500 events held in both countries. Simultaneously, this was one of the last important high-level diplomatic events of 2023, a vibrant and successful year for Vietnamese diplomacy, continuing the effective implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/thu-tuong-du-hoi-nghi-cap-cao-asean-nhat-ban-tu-cam-xuc-den-hanh-dong-254728.html