Vietnamese State President Truong Tan Sang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed to upgrade the Vietnam-Japan relations to an Extensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia.

>>VN, Japan to cement ties, including agricultural cooperation The agreement was reached during the talks between President Sang and Prime Minister Abe on Tuesday, as part of the former’s ongoing state visit to Japan. The two leaders expressed their pleasure at the strong growth of the two countries’ relationships in various fields, including economics, politics, security, defense, culture, tourism, and human resources development. They agreed on a number of major directions as well as concrete measures to make their bilateral ties deeper, more practical and comprehensive.

The Japanese PM said Japan is ready to assist Vietnam in enhancing its capacity in maritime law enforcement, and affirmed that Japan will continue regarding Vietnam as an important partner in its ODA policy.

He also said Japan will help Vietnam develop its industrial parks and implement the Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear power project in the central region.

Both the host and guest agreed to boost cooperation in agriculture as well as highly appreciated the establishment of a joint working group by the two ministries of agriculture for the building of a long-term cooperation plan in the field.

The Japanese premier vowed to support Vietnam in upgrading some key universities to meet international standards, and pledged to expand the acceptance of Vietnamese nurses, care workers, and technical interns into institutions in Japan.

The two sides welcomed the increase in the number of trips to Vietnam organized by Japanese high schools, while sharing the same view on the strengthening of cooperation in broadcasting, sports, and tourism.

The two leaders concurred with each other their countries will keep coordinating closely in regional and international forums and cooperation frameworks, and positively contributing to the maintenance of peace, stability, cooperation and prosperity in the region.

They also emphasized the importance of ensuring peace, stability and development in the region, especially the guarantee of maritime and aviation peace, freedom, security and safety based on international law as well as the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

President Sang highly valued  the efforts of the Japanese government and people in enacting the new economic policy dubbed “Abenomics,” expressing his expectation that the recovery of the Japanese economy will bring significant benefits to the regional and global economy. He also lauded Japan’s proposal for setting up a dialogue framework to promote cooperation in culture and people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

After their talks, President Sang and PM Abe signed a joint statement on the establishment of the extensive strategic partnership between the two nations for peace and prosperity in Asia.

The two leaders also witnessed the signing of documents on the Japanese government’s preferential loan totaling US$1.179 billion in the second phase of the 2013 fiscal year for five projects in Vietnam, and a number of agreements on cooperation in various fields.