During his talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, Mr Khiem, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, affirmed that Japan is one of Vietnam’s important and top priority partners.

He thanked the government and people of Japan for their effective assistance to Vietnam’s socio-economic development and their continued provision of official development assistance (ODA).
He spoke highly of Japan’s role and active contributions to cooperative relations between Japan and the Greater Mekong Sub-region, and voiced his support for Japan’s initiative to host a Mekong-Japan summit later this year.

For his part, Minister Nakasone affirmed that the Japanese Government attaches great importance to developing cooperative ties with Vietnam. He said that Japan will continue to support Vietnam in speeding up its industrialisation and modernisation process, and help the country organise the Japanese Festival in Hoi An City and the Mekong-Japan Cultural and Tourism Days in Can Tho City.

While receiving Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, Minister Khiem emphasised the importance of the expansion of cooperative ties with the countries and hoped that they would help Vietnam establish a comprehensive relationship with the European Union (EU) and speed up negotiations on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the EU. He proposed that the two EU countries urge the EC to recognise Vietnam’s market economy status.

Mr Khiem and Mr Kohout expressed their pleasure at the positive development of the traditional friendship between Vietnam and the Czech Republic, but said economic and trade ties have yet to match their potential.

Meanwhile, Minister Khiem and Minister Paet agreed that Vietnam and Estonia will negotiate and sign an agreement on visa exemption for their diplomatic passport holders and open a honourary consulate of Estonia in Vietnam.

Vietnam and Estonia will work together to sign agreements to create a legal framework for bilateral cooperation, particularly in economics, investment and trade.