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Prime Minister Visits Viet Nam


Sunday, November 19 to Monday, November 20, 2006
Photograph of the leaders of the two countries attending the welcome ceremony Photograph of the Japan-Viet Nam summit meeting Photograph of the two leaders and first ladies at the welcoming banquet
Photograph of Prime Minister and Mrs. Abe laying a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Photograph of Prime Minister Abe paying a courtesy call on President Triet Photograph of Prime Minister Abe paying a courtesy call on General Secretary Manh


Click photographs to enlarge


Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an official visit to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on the evening of November 19 (Japan time: evening of the same day), following the completion earlier that day of his schedule for the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting.

Prime Minister Abe attended a welcome ceremony held in front of the Presidential Palace, and then moved on to a meeting with Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, the Prime Minister of Viet Nam, in the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, the two leaders identified their bilateral relationship as a strategic partnership and agreed to promote economic cooperation between the two countries in such areas as trade and investment. In response to Prime Minister Abe's request for cooperation in resolving the North Korean abduction issue, Prime Minister Dung expressed his support for Japan's position.

Afterwards, with the aim of promoting economic exchange between Japan and Viet Nam, Prime Minister Abe, along with a 130-strong Japanese business mission to Viet Nam headed by Mr. Fujio Mitarai, the Chairman of the Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), attended a meeting organized for the leaders of the two nations and the business communities of both countries.

On November 20, Prime Minister Abe laid wreaths at the National Hero Memorial and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. He thereafter paid courtesy calls on Mr. Nguyen Minh Triet, the President of Viet Nam, and Mr. Nong Duc Manh, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, respectively.

Next, Prime Minister Abe delivered an address at a seminar co-hosted by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Nippon Keidanren, which took place at a hotel in Ha Noi.

Having completed his schedule in Viet Nam, Prime Minister Abe spoke about the APEC Summit at a press conference, saying "I explained to other leaders Japan's policy to realize a Japan that is open to the world, a Japan that enjoys robust growth on the two pillars of innovation and openness. As the second largest economic power in the world, and as the country with the longest tradition of democratic governance in Asia, Japan shall continue to strive to exercise leadership for the development of APEC." Prime Minister Abe also said of his visit to Viet Nam that "We have had a very constructive exchange of views on further development of economic ties between Japan and Viet Nam with the participation of the representatives of the business community. I believe that concrete results shall be generated."