TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio and his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Minh Chinh, on Wednesday agreed to work together to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

In their meeting in Tokyo, Kishida and Chinh confirmed their countries’ commitment to the initiative, apparently with China’s increasingly hegemonic behavior in mind.

Kishida pledged that Japan will provide an additional 1.54 million doses of novel coronavirus vaccine to Vietnam.

Chinh is the first foreign leader who has visited Japan since Kishida took office as prime minister in October.

Kishida hopes to strengthen Japan’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations through further conversations with Chinh. Early this month, they exchanged opinions in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Vietnam is our important partner key to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida said during Wednesday’s meeting.

“We want Vietnam to be at the center of economic recovery after the coronavirus crisis,” Kishida said, asking Chinh for cooperation to expand investments in the Southeast Asian country by Japanese companies.

In reply, Chinh pledged to work proactively to create an investment-friendly environment.

Kishida and Chinh also agreed to accelerate talks on details of defense equipment transfer under the two countries’ agreement on the matter signed in September.

Meanwhile, Chinh expressed his support for Japan’s efforts to bring home Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago.

The two leaders released a joint statement promising to take the bilateral relations to a higher level. They also attended a ceremony to exchange notes related to coronavirus measures and foreign technical intern trainees working in Japan.

JIJI Press