Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Khanh Ngoc held talks with visiting Japanese Minister of Justice Furukawa Yoshihisa in Hanoi on June 29. (Photo: VGP)

Deputy Minister Ngoc highly appreciated Furukawa for selecting Vietnam as one of the destinations on his first foreign trip since taking office in October 2021, saying Japan was the first bilateral partner providing technical support for Vietnam in legal and judicial matters, particularly through projects run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam since 1996.

Japan has been providing Vietnam with assistance in law-making in civil and economic affairs and litigation, as well as capacity building.

To further boost the bilateral partnership in the coming time, Deputy Minister Ngoc suggested the two sides continue effectively executing the Memorandum of Understanding on legal and judicial matters signed in October 2020 and jointly implementing the JICA-funded project on improving the quality and effectiveness of law-making and law enforcement in Vietnam from 2021 – 2025.

The two sides should also strengthen cooperation in mutual legal assistance in civil and commercial matters and settling cases on civil and nationality registration regarding Vietnamese and Japanese citizens, given that Vietnam and Japan are seeing growing civil, trade and investment exchanges, he said.

Furukawa, for his part, expected the two sides to jointly take specific measures to beef up legal and judicial partnership.

He thanked the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice for pushing legal and judicial cooperation between Japan and ASEAN at the ASEAN Law Ministers’ Meeting (ALAWMM) and ASEAN Senior Law Officials’ Meeting (ASLOM).

He also wished to receive further support from Vietnam in future activities, including celebrations of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN – Japan diplomatic ties.