New Japanese PM Suga to arrive in Vietnam Sunday

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry also announced Friday that Suga will hold talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other government leaders.

Suga will also meet with Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Vietnam is the first overseas destination of the newly appointed Japanese PM.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Thursday that Suga's visit takes place at a time when Vietnam-Japan relations are developing well. Hang said Japan continues to be Vietnam’s most important economic partner, including in providing official development aid (ODA). Japan is also Vietnam’s second largest investor and fourth largest commercial partner.

Japanese PM wants to continue strengthening relations with Vietnam, discuss measures to promote cooperation in all fields and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, she said.

Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic ties in 1973, upgrading bilateral ties to strategic partnership in 2009, and to extensive strategic partnership in 2014.

As of September 2020, Japan had invested in nearly 4,600 projects in Vietnam with registered capital of nearly $60 billion. It is the second biggest investor among 136 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Japanese investment in Vietnam reached $1.73 billion in the first nine months of this year.

Japan is also the largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Vietnam at around $24 billion as of last year.

Two-way trade turnover reached $28.6 billion between January and September, down 1.8 percent compared to the same period last year.