Dr Tomotaka Shoji.

Dr Tomotaka Shoji, director of the Regional Research Division at the National Institute for Defence Studies under the Japanese Ministry of Defence, has said that Vietnam-Japan relations have potential for further development.

In an interview granted to the VNA's resident correspondent ahead of President Vo Van Thuong’s official visit to Japan from 27-30, the Japanese scholar said that in the context that this year marks the 50th founding anniversary of Japan-Vietnam diplomatic ties and the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation, the visit is an opportunity for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Thuong to reaffirm the strength of the bilateral relations and further development of bilateral/multilateral ties.

According to Dr. Shoji, Japanese people consider Vietnam an ideal tourist destination due to its close geographical location, attractive sites and cuisine. He assessed that Vietnam is a very fast-growing economy and its people are full of energy.

He also expressed his delight that Vietnamese people feel familiar with Japan and Japanese people find that Vietnamese people are very friendly, especially when there are many Vietnamese people living in the East Asian country. The feeling of familiarity plays an important role in promoting Japan's cooperation with Vietnam, he continued.

Regarding the strengths of Vietnam-Japan relations, Shoji affirmed that the two countries can establish and maintain strong bilateral relations thanks to geographical proximity, ethnic sympathy, economic complementarity, and converging strategic interests.

Embassy officials employees and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Japan welcomed President Vo Van Thuong and his wife at Haneda Airport, Tokyo, on the afternoon of November 26. Photo: VNA

He said that the first strength is economic collaboration, emphasizing that bilateral cooperation in this field has obtained strong progress. Japan has long valued economic cooperation in its foreign policy. With strong economic potential, Japan wants to promote its advantages to strengthen relations with Vietnam.

Security is also a very important area of cooperation, Shoji said, elaborating that the two sides have many prospects for cooperation in this regard.

Touching on challenges in the bilateral relations, he said that despite good relations between the two countries, Vietnam and Japan still need to resolve a number of issues, including policies relating to technical apprentices. It is necessary for the two countries to maintain and deepen their relationship by collaborating more in areas such as sustainable economy, environmental protection, and regional security, Shoji said.

He expressed his confidence that cooperation in the economic and security fields between the two countries will continue to develop in the coming time.

Shoji noted that there are many issues that affect not only Vietnam and Japan but also other countries in the world, such as climate change. Each country is facing different problems, such as the environment. Therefore, he believed that Japan and Vietnam should work together to solve these problems and this could be a potential area of cooperation in the future.

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