But the visit, Nguyen said in an interview with Japanese media outlets before his four-day trip to Japan, was aimed at “bringing Vietnam-Japan relations to a higher level”. Abe has famous the repeated intrusions into waters across the uninhabited Senkaku islands, which have been beneath Japanese management for many years however are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.
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The agreement to provide more used vessels follows Tokyo’s pledge a year ago to provide Hanoi with six secondhand ships that could be used as patrol vessels.
Japan has pledged has to provide more vessels to Vietnam as part of the country’s efforts to boost its security capabilities in the wake of China’s muscle-flexing in the South China Sea. It is also embroiled in a row with Japan over a group of East China Sea islets.
“If you look at before this set of legislation and related changes, it was a pretty ludicrous situation where Japanese Self-Defence Forces could barely do anything worthy of the name of defence forces except in a major attack on Japan”, said Alan Dupont, a professor at the University of New South Wales.
There is now no chance of a military conflict between China and Japan because the United States will be unwilling to be “kidnapped” by Japan into defending it, said Qiao, who also firmly denied the possibility of wars with Vietnam and the Philippines over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
On the economic front, Japan decided to extend 28.6 billion yen ($239 million) in official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam for building a general hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Trong’s trip comes just two months after Dung travelled to Japan and held talks with Abe and is the latest of a series of visits by high-ranking officials from Vietnam.
Prior to the news conference, the two countries signed a memorandum of cooperation between their coast guards to enhance development of human resources. Vietnam will also open its market to Japanese apples, while Vietnamese mangoes will enter Japanese markets soon.
On a broader scale, the two said they will continue working for the early conclusion of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative, the document said.
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Vietnam has been trying to strengthen ties with other nations to counter China’s growing assertiveness.
