Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to attend the summit commemorating 50 years of ASEAN-Japan relations. Photo: VGP.

Speaking at the summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said giving high priority to heart-to-heart partnerships, investing appropriately in people-to-people exchange activities, especially cultural and artistic educational exchange, local cooperation in sports and tourism is extremely important.

This helps strengthen mutual understanding and trust and cultivate emotional bonds between people.

That is also an investment in the human factor as the subject, the center, the driving force, the resource, and the goal for development in general and the development of ASEAN-Japan relations in particular.

The Prime Minister proposed that promoting social and cultural cooperation activities and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides need to be restored faster and stronger after the Covid-19 pandemic.

In particular, the Prime Minister also asked Japan to prioritize increasing support for training human resources, especially strategic-level managers and high-quality human resources in science and technology for ASEAN countries.

He proposed that Japan expand scholarship programs, including Japanese language scholarships for students from ASEAN countries, create favorable conditions for the community of Vietnamese and ASEAN countries in Japan to live, study, and work, continue to simplify, and soon move towards visa exemption for citizens of ASEAN countries.

Previously, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of ASEAN countries and Japan attended the opening ceremony of the summit commemorating 50 years of ASEAN-Japan relations.

At the event, ASEAN leaders affirmed that they value the relationship with Japan, one of ASEAN's oldest and most reliable partners.

They always support solidarity, unity, and the central role of ASEAN, participating and contributing to all ASEAN-led mechanisms and forums such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Defense Minister's Meeting-Plus (ADMM+), and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

Japan is ASEAN's second largest foreign direct investor with a total capital of US$26.7 billion, ASEAN's 4th largest trading partner with two-way trade turnover reaching US$268.5 billion. Japan deploys many exchange, cultural and social activities, support ASEAN to narrow the development gap and develop the sub-region.

Speaking at the summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that with headwinds and unprecedented challenges, ASEAN and Japan need to strengthen solidarity and strengthen cooperation.

Photo: daidoanket.vn

They need to make the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership a model and a positive factor that plays an important role in creating an environment of peace, stability, mutual development, and win-win in the region.

To realize that goal, they need to further strengthen ASEAN-Japan strategic coordination, jointly promoting the building of an open, rules-based regional structure with ASEAN playing a central role.

They promote effective economic connectivity through digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, and knowledge economy, jointly research and implement several specific cooperation projects that closely connect Japan's vision with the vision of ASEAN, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean.

At the end of the summit, the leaders approved the "Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation: Trusted Partner" and "Plan to implement the Vision Statement," as a basis for implementing the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the coming time.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also had a private exchange with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio within the framework of the Summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan diplomatic relations.

At the exchange, the Prime Minister proposed that Japan pay attention to and support Vietnam in surveying, building, and providing new generation ODA capital for digital infrastructure construction projects, green transformation, and large-scale strategic infrastructure development in Vietnam, especially the plan to build the North-South high-speed railway.

He proposed to immediately research the possibility of cooperation in training high-quality human resources towards the construction and implementation of this especially important and symbolic project in the future.

Prime Minister Kishida affirmed that he attaches great importance to the Prime Minister's proposal and will direct agencies to carefully study Vietnam's proposal.

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