Japan’s Takaichi promises strong cooperation with Vietnam | Powerful Stories

Takaichi will sign six agreements with Vietnam, including on technology, agriculture and land, during a visit to Hanoi.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country will expand its relationship with Vietnam, focusing on energy and important minerals.

Takaichi met with his Vietnamese counterpart, Le Minh Hung, on Saturday in Hanoi, where they signed six agreements on issues ranging from infrastructure to agriculture to land cooperation.

“The two sides recognized that economic security is a new area of ​​bilateral cooperation,” Takaichi told reporters after the meeting.

“In the case of essential minerals… both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation to ensure the smooth running of the supply chain and to strengthen supply chains,” he added.

Hung said the two leaders “reaffirmed the importance of resolving disputes in the South China Sea through peaceful means based on international law”.

Japan and Vietnam share concerns about China’s interests in the East and South China Seas, and both have sought to counter the US-led trade deficit by expanding economic and security ties.

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The push for deeper cooperation between the two countries comes after new investment in Vietnam from Japan, one of its biggest foreign investors, fell nearly 75 percent year-on-year to $233m in the first quarter, even as bilateral trade rose 12.3 percent to $13.7bn over the same period, according to Vietnamese government and customs data.

Vietnam has been looking for help from Japan and other countries to get oil as conflicts in the Middle East drives higher prices and disruption of supply chains.

Under the $10bn Power Asia Initiative to help Asian countries become self-reliant, Japan will help process crude oil at Vietnam’s Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, Hung said.

Takaichi was also scheduled to meet President To Lam, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, on Saturday afternoon and deliver an important lecture at Vietnam National University, marking ten years since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy.