Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is predicted to conform to improve the connection to a complete strategic partnership throughout talks with Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
Thuong is scheduled to go to Japan early subsequent month, in accordance with the newspaper, citing Japanese authorities sources.
Hanoi has not introduced Thuong’s go to to Japan.
This yr marks the fiftieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan.
Earlier this month, Japanese and Vietnamese overseas ministers agreed to work collectively to carry the bilateral relations “to new heights,” in accordance with Kyodo News.
In September, Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue stated Vietnam supported the improve of the 2 international locations’ relationship to a brand new degree, in accordance with the official Hanoi Times.
The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry and the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi didn’t reply to requests for feedback from VOA Vietnamese.
The anticipated improve of the bilateral ties between Vietnam and Japan follows Hanoi’s transfer to strengthen its relations with Washington.
Vietnam elevated its ties with the United States to a complete strategic partnership throughout U.S. President Joe Biden’s go to to Hanoi in early September, putting Washington on par with Beijing in its diplomatic engagement.
“Japan and Vietnam have sympathies due to the similar territorial issue with China,” Bich Tran, an adjunct fellow on the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies., informed VOA Vietnamese in an Oct. 25 e mail.
Japan has a long-running dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands, or the Diaoyu Islands, as Beijing calls them, within the East China Sea, whereas Vietnam has turn into more and more cautious of Beijing’s increasing navy actions and territorial claims within the South China Sea, which Hanoi calls the East Sea.
Vietnam and Japan stepped up their navy cooperation in September 2021 amid worries about China’s rising navy affect when Japan signed an settlement to switch protection gear and expertise to Vietnam that permits the Tokyo authorities to export gear and expertise produced by Japan to the Southeast Asian nation.
“Both Vietnam and Japan want to address conflicts in the seas with China based on international laws and through peaceful resolutions,” stated Ha Hoang Hop, affiliate senior fellow on the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“For that, Vietnam supports the free and open Indo-Pacific framework that had led to the two countries’ bonding and supporting each other in the elements related to security,” Hop stated in a phone interview with VOA Vietnamese on Oct. 25.
Analysts say Vietnam is searching for a stability between the powers by means of diversifying its bilateral relations with many international locations for its safety and nationwide pursuits.
“Vietnam, the U.S. and its allies are becoming more compatible,” stated Hop, referring to the international locations’ shared targets of selling safety and cooperating to understand the open and free area.
“The upgrade of its relationship with Japan at this time would contribute to reducing the prominence of the Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive strategic partnership while showing Hanoi’s policy of diversifying diplomatic relations,” Bich stated, referring to Vietnam’s efforts to keep away from China’s anger over turning into nearer to the U.S.
Following Biden’s Vietnam go to final month, China’s state-run Global Times newspaper stated “Washington attempted to induce Vietnam to play a greater role in the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific containment circle against China.”
“Vietnam has never had an intention to get closer to the U.S. and other Western countries to contain China,” stated Hop. “They want to see China going with the rules.”
Biden, when talking in Hanoi final month, stated he is not attempting “to contain China” and that the boosted relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam is “about having a stable base” within the Indo-Pacific area.
In 2014, Vietnam and Japan arrange an intensive strategic partnership.
Bilateral commerce between the 2 international locations reached practically $50 billion in 2022, making Japan the fourth-largest buying and selling accomplice for Vietnam.