Vietnam’s president, Vo Van Thuong, will visit Japan next week, according to a spokesperson for the Vietnamese foreign ministry.
The visits come as the two countries discuss ways to strengthen their ties.
According to the report, closer ties would confirm Vietnam’s increasingly strategic role as an important link in global supply chains amid trade tensions between China and the West, which is encouraging foreign investment in the Southeast Asian country as some companies relocate operations from China.
The normalization of relations with Japan would follow Vietnam’s historic normalization of relations with the US in September, when the former adversaries signed a slew of cooperation agreements, including ones on semiconductors and critical minerals.
It may also be followed by a visit to Hanoi by China’s President Xi Jinping, who according to officials and diplomats, could travel to Vietnam in December and agree on a joint statement indicating the two countries share a common destiny.
Meanwhile, Thuong’s visit from Monday to Thursday next week is his first to Japan as president and coincides with celebrations for the 50th anniversary of ties between the Asian countries.
Vietnam classifies Japan as a strategic partner, one notch below China, Russia, South Korea, India, and the United States.
Japan is Vietnam’s third-largest source of foreign investment and its fourth-largest trading partner.
Several Japanese multinationals have big factories in the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, including Canon, Honda, Panasonic, and Bridgestone.
