Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has revealed his intention to invite the leaders of Vietnam and six other countries to the 49th G7 Summit 2023, hosted by Japan in May.

Kishida announced the plan to the media on Monday during his visit to India where he officially invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to this year’s annual G7 Summit, who accepted the invitation, according to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper.

Japan expects to invite Vietnam, Australia, Brazil, the Comoros, the Cook Islands, Indonesia, and South Korea to the summit, in addition to India. 

The upcoming summit is scheduled to take place in Hiroshima Prefecture on May 19-21. 

The Group of Seven (G7) nations consist of the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, and Japan.

PM Kishida did not give explanations about his wishes to include India and seven other non-G7 nations in the summit, but it is easy to see that all of them are Japan’s important or potential partners.

Currently, Indonesia is the rotating chair of the 10-member ASEAN bloc while India is the rotating chair of the G20 group, which includes the seven G7 countries.

Australia is an important partner of Japan in the QUAD group, including the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan.

South Korea recently resolved controversial historical issues with Japan and is moving toward a new stage of development between the two countries.

Brazil, the Comoros, and the Cook Islands are among the Southern Hemisphere countries with which Tokyo is looking to strengthen ties, according to a white paper on the Southern Hemisphere released by Japan last week.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has been an extensive strategic partnership of Japan since 2014 and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

Cooperation possibilities for Japan and Vietnam are limitless, PM Kishida said when attending a seminar on bilateral cooperation in digital transformation, technology renovation, and supply chain diversification in Hanoi on May 1 last year, as part of his two-day official visit to Vietnam. 

Vietnam is now a member of the United Nation Human Rights Council for the 2023-25 term and has an important voice in ASEAN. 

The country previously attended two annual summits of the G7 Group.

In 2016, Vietnam joined the 42nd G7 Summit, also hosted by Japan in Ise-Shima, at the invitation of then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who passed away last year.

Two years later, Canada invited Vietnam to join the 44th G7 Summit in Quebec.

In his message for the upcoming 49th summit, PM Kishida said the world is facing many challenges, “such as the global economy including energy and food security, regional affairs including Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, economic security, and global issues including climate change, global health, and development.” 

He pledged that as the chair of the Summit, he will “facilitate candid discussions among the G7 leaders to articulate ideas and plans for the future,” according to the official website of the G7 Hiroshima Summit launched by the Japanese government.

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Poland wishes to foster multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, the most significant partner of Poland in Southeast Asia, visiting Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau has stressed in Hanoi.

Minister Rau was speaking during his talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday, as part of his two-day visit, starting a day earlier, to Vietnam at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son.

Rau said he is impressed with Vietnam’s socio-economic development achievements and stated that Poland wants to expand its comprehensive cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation, especially in areas where Poland has strengths, such as smart city building, green technology, environmental protection, and information technology.

He emphasized in the presence of PM Chinh that Poland regards Vietnam as its most vital partner in Southeast Asia.

The guest and host exchanged views on a number of measures to beef up cooperation in education and training, science and technology, culture, tourism, and agriculture.

PM Chinh told Minister Rau that Vietnam wishes to deepen its multifaceted cooperation with Poland, its traditional friend and partner in Central and Eastern Europe.

The host said that Vietnam encourages Polish investors to step up investment in the fields of pharmaceuticals, food processing, and manufacturing in the country.

He suggested that Poland soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement, which he said will facilitate equal and mutually beneficial investment cooperation between the two countries.

The Vietnamese government chief also proposed that Poland urge the European Commission to soon remove the ‘yellow card’ warning for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing on Vietnamese seafood products.

Such removal will not only ensure livelihoods for workers in the Vietnamese fishery industry, but also serves the interests of both Polish and EU consumers, Chinh stressed, citing the fact that the EU was once among Vietnam’s leading seafood export markets before the imposition of the warning.

The PM requested Poland to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese agricultural, forestry, and fishery products to further penetrate into the Polish market.

Despite the heavy impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries’ economic and trade cooperation has been thriving, with annual bilateral trade standing at a high level of over US$2.5 billion in both 2021 and 2022, Chinh said.

The PM expressed thanks for Poland’s donation of nearly 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and eight metric tons of medical equipment to Vietnam during the pandemic that started hitting the country in early 2020.

Chinh also thanked the Polish government for its support for the Vietnamese community in Poland, as well as for the Vietnamese citizens who have been evacuated from Ukraine to Poland since the war there erupted in February last year.

The host and guest agreed that both countries would continue mutual cooperation and coordination at multilateral and regional forums.

Regarding the East Vietnam Sea issue, they laid emphasis on the importance of ensuring security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the maritime area, while agreeing to settle disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Earlier on Thursday, Rau had talks with Foreign Minister Son, saying Vietnam is one of Poland’s most potential markets in Southeast Asia.

The Polish diplomat suggested that Vietnam create more favorable conditions for some Polish products, such as beef, poultry, and blueberries, to enter the Vietnamese market.

The two ministers agreed to promote bilateral cooperation in various fields including education and training, agriculture, natural resources, environment, culture, tourism, health, labor, information technology, communication, and monument restoration.

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The Japanese government announced a grant of US$1.38 million as non-refundable aid for nine projects in Vietnam on Friday.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Hanoi, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Takio Yamada said these projects involve a wide range of fields, including health care, education, transport and environment, and will be carried out in a variety of communities across the country.

They comprise a project on cluster bomb disposal in central Quang Binh Province and a project to upgrade rehabilitation and vocational training equipment for northern Thai Binh Province’s Association for Agent Orange/dioxin Victims.

Projects on building schools, bridges, irrigation works and clean water supply stations in other provinces are also included in the package.

The scale of each project of non-refundable aid at the grassroots level is not large, but the projects are designed to bring key benefits to the maximum amount of people in these communities, according to the ambassador.

A total of 724 Japanese-funded projects have been implemented since 1992 with a total value of up to $64.5 million, he said.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange/dioxin Victims (VAVA), thanked the Japanese government for the assistance, saying it has brought practical benefits to many Agent Orange/dioxin victims and their descendants in recent years, the Vietnam News Agency quoted.

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