Vietnam-Japan parliarmentary relations hailed

During talks with Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence of the House of Councillors Shingo Miyake in Tokyo on June 18 as part of his visit to Japan, Giau said in 2017, Vietnam was honoured to welcome the Japanese Emperor and Empress as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Speaker of the House of Representatives Oshima Tadamori and Speaker of the House of Councillors Chuichi Date.Most recently, President Tran Dai Quang paid a State visit to Japan from May 29 to June 2, 2018 during which the two sides issued a joint statement saying the visit has deepened the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia, he added.According to Giau, two-way trade hit 33 billion USD last year. Japan now runs over 3,700 projects with a total capital of 50 billion USD in Vietnam.Japan's official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam over the past nearly 30 years has amounted to 30 billion USD.The Vietnamese community in Japan currently exceeds 260,000, including 125,000 students and apprentices.For his part, Shingo Miyake said he will continue efforts to foster exchanges between the two countries' parliamentarians at all levels, both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors.Regarding the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), he informed that the Japanese Diet has approved the deal and is discussing a draft law relating to the CPTPP, which is expected to be completed at its ongoing session.He expressed his wish that Vietnam will soon ratify this agreement so that CPTPP will create a push to global free trade.He also wished for coordination with Vietnam in promoting the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in order to make it a high-quality trade agreement like CPTPP.On the same day, Giau paid a courtesy visit to Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.

(Source: VNA)