Vietnam, Japan Strengthen Strategic Partnership

In mid September, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, paid a much-anticipated visit to Japan, arriving at the invitation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The agreements reached by the two countries during the four-day trip amounted to a significant boost in their already extensive strategic partnership.

Vietnam and Japan enjoy a robust bilateral relationship, which has strengthened even further since Abe took office and made a concerted effort to boost ties with Southeast Asia. The two countries inked a strategic partnership in 2009 and upgraded it to an extensive strategic partnership in 2014. Trong’s recent visit came at a critical time for Vietnam ahead of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s 12th Congress next year, which will renew the country’s leadership.

The agreements reached by both sides certainly bolstered their ties. On the security side, cooperation has advanced in recent years due to the convergence of interests in handling South China Sea and East China Sea disputes with an increasingly assertive China. Japan had previously committed to strengthening Vietnam’s maritime law enforcement capabilities, with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announcing during an August 2014 visit that Tokyo would donate six used vessels to Hanoi.

A Japanese foreign ministry official clarified during a press conference a week after Trong’s visit that Tokyo would now donate two additional used vessels and related equipment as part of a broader package. The two countries also inked a memorandum of cooperation between their coast guards which will be a further boost to collaboration in the maritime realm.

The strengthening of bilateral defense ties during Trong’s visit extended beyond maritime security. For instance, according to a joint statement released on September 15, both defense ministries signed a memorandum of cooperation on United Nations peacekeeping operations. They also pledged to step up cooperation in non-traditional security issues including cyber security and transnational organized crime.

On the economic side, Japan has long been one of Vietnam’s most important partners, with Hanoi viewing Tokyo as a key player in advancing its economic development. For Japan, meanwhile, Vietnam is a significant Southeast Asian market. Japan is the largest source of foreign aid to Vietnam and its second largest investor, after South Korea. The two countries, which are both members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), are also both involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a mammoth free trade pact whose 12 members represent nearly 40 percent of global GDP, in addition to ASEAN’s proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Japan deepened that cooperation still further during Nguyen’s visit. The big-ticket item was Abe’s announcement that Japan would extend a 100 billion yen ($835 million) loan to Hanoi for infrastructure development. This is in line with Abe’s broader initiative announced in May to provide $110 billion to promote “quality” infrastructure to Asian countries over the next five years, which some noted was just a little higher than the $100 billion founding capital of China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Japan and Vietnam also agreed to move forward in establishing a Joint Committee on Cooperation in Industry, Trade and Energy to advance economic ties.

The joint statement also noted other economic initiatives. For instance, Japan has offered 286 million yen in official development assistance to help Vietnam build new general hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. Meanwhile, following what was referred to as an “intensive plant quarantine consultation,” Vietnam will also open its market to Japanese apples, while Vietnamese mangoes will enter Japanese markets soon. Trong also met with representatives of the Japan Business Federation and praised its two-decade long relationship with Vietnam.

In addition to detailed sections on the various aspects of cooperation, the joint statement had a section on regional and global issues. While the section referred to a wide variety of areas, including trade, marine resources, the Mekong subregion, the United Nations, and stability on the Korean Peninsula, most of the attention was lavished on a long paragraph on the South China Sea, which Abe also referenced during his press conference with Trong. In the statement, the two sides expressed “serious concerns” over developments in the South China Sea, which include large-scale land reclamation and the building of outposts, claiming they have “increased tensions, eroded trust and confidence, and threatened peace and stability in the region and the world.”

Before beginning his voyage to Tokyo, Trong said in an interview with Japanese media outlets that he hoped that the visit would “generate fresh momentum to elevate Vietnam-Japan relations to a higher plane.” All indications so far suggest that his trip – his first in his capacity as party secretary general – has been yet another boost to the burgeoning Vietnam-Japan strategic partnership.