Vietnam, Japan discuss COVID-19 fight, economic cooperation

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh  (Photo: VNA)

This was the second time the Foreign Ministers of the two countries had held phone talks in the past two months.

The two sides informed each other about the COVID-19 situation and prevention and control results in each country, as well as agreed to continue to work closely to increase exchanges and promote economic cooperation between the two countries.

Minh appreciated the positive results in COVID-19 prevention and control of the Japanese Government. He thanked the Government and people of Japan for their support for Vietnam in the fight, especially the support package given to Vietnamese students and interns living in Japan.

For his part, Toshimitsu Motegi congratulated Vietnam's impressive achievements in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, which were praised by the international community. He also expressed his thanks to the Vietnamese Government, National Assembly and people for providing medical masks for Japan and supporting Japanese managers and experts to return to Vietnam to work.

The Japanese official said besides previous aid packages for COVID-19 prevention and control, Japan would continue to support Vietnam through providing medical equipment and supplies based on its needs. He suggested the two sides soon conduct a discussion to consider resumption of travel between the two countries’ people, especially managers and experts, thus promoting the economic, trade and investment cooperation.

The two sides agreed to work closely at regional and international forums, including ASEAN and the Mekong – Japan cooperation mechanism, and speed up the realisation of the proposal to establish an ASEAN Centre for emerging diseases and public health emergencies by Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo at the online Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on April 14th./.