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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hosted a welcome ceremony for H.E. Dr. Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam , who is paying an official visit to Japan, at Akasaka Palace State Guest House.

Afterwards, the two leaders held a summit meeting, followed by a signing ceremony and joint press announcement, at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Lastly, the Prime Minister hosted a banquet at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and said in his address,

“I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to the top leader of Viet Nam and an old friend to Japan, General Secretary Trong, upon his fifth visit to our country.

I place importance on our relations with Viet Nam. After my inauguration, Viet Nam was the first country I visited. I met with General Secretary Trong then, and we held a meaningful exchange of opinions on economic exchange and regional issues. I am extremely pleased to be able to welcome General Secretary Trong here today as an official guest of the Government of Japan.

In our summit meeting today, General Secretary Trong and I shared the view that we would further expand the friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries. We produced a major outcome in the form of a joint statement that lays out a direction for bilateral cooperation.

As we deepen our friendly bilateral relations, human exchange is also becoming increasingly active. Last year, over 120,000 people from Viet Nam visited Japan, and over 600,000 Japanese people visited Viet Nam.

For today’s banquet, we have invited leaders from a variety of fields, including politics, business, and culture, who are supporting the friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries. We have you to thank for the robustly developing relationship between Japan and Viet Nam that exists today. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone, and to say that I would be grateful for your continuing support to further strengthen the bonds between our two countries.

Lastly, I wish to take the opportunity of this banquet to share some food-related news with you. Both Japan and Viet Nam have long-held cultures of consuming rice as a staple food. I myself love Pho. I think it is deeply significant that, following the Japan-Viet Nam Summit Meeting, our two rice-loving countries signed a vision statement for the development of agriculture.

There is one other piece of good news to share about food. I am pleased to say that the prohibitions on both the exports of Japanese apples to Viet Nam and Vietnamese mangos to Japan have been lifted. This is yet another step forward for us.

For dessert today, we have prepared some of those apples. Originally, we wanted everyone to also be able to taste the mangos for which export to Japan has been legalized, but the lifting of that prohibition will occur two days from now, on the 17th. As someone who values the rule of law, it is unfortunate that I could not serve mangos today. In any case, I hope you will enjoy today’s apples.

I would now like to raise a toast to the continued development of our bilateral relationship and to everyone’s good health. Cheers.”