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06-05-2026
TOKYO/ HO CHI MINH CITY: Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says the country will boost ties with Vietnam, with a focus on energy and critical minerals.
Takaichi met her Vietnamese counterpart, Le Minh Hung, on Saturday in Hanoi, where they signed six agreements on issues ranging from infrastructure to agriculture to space cooperation.
“The two sides identified economic security as a new priority area for bilateral cooperation,” Takaichi told reporters after the meeting.
“With regard to critical minerals … both sides agreed to strengthen close coordination to ensure stable supplies and reinforce supply chains,” she added.
Hung said the two leaders also “reaffirmed the importance of resolving disputes in the South China Sea through peaceful means based on international law”.
Japan and Vietnam share concerns about China’s territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, and both have sought to hedge against United States-driven trade disruptions by broadening economic and security ties.
The push for deeper cooperation between the two states comes after new investment in Vietnam from Japan, one of its largest foreign investors, fell about 75 percent year-on-year to $233m in the first quarter, even as bilateral trade rose 12.3 percent to $13.7bn over the same period, according to Vietnamese government and customs data.
Vietnam has been seeking support from Japan and other countries for oil supplies as conflict in the Middle East drives prices higher and disrupts supply chains.
Under the $10bn Power Asia Initiative to support Asian countries’ energy self-reliance, Japan will assist in arranging crude oil supplies for Vietnam’s Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, Hung said.
Takaichi was also set to meet President To Lam, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, on Saturday afternoon and deliver a keynote speech at Vietnam National University, marking a decade since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy.
After a long day of ferrying passengers to and fro recently, e-hailing driver Nguyen was dejected to find he had spent half of his earnings on fuel.
“I drove for around seven or eight hours, making around 240,000 Vietnamese dong ($9.11) and then I paid 120,000 Vietnamese dong ($4.56) on petrol,” Nguyen, a motorcyclist who connects with passengers via the locally developed super-app be, told media, asking not to be identified by his real name.
“I can’t survive with this amount of money in the city.”
In Vietnam, the ripples of the US-Israel war on Iran are hitting many gig workers hard. The Southeast Asian country normally sources about 80 percent of its crude oil from Kuwait, but shipments have dried up amid Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, driving up fuel prices.
Diesel prices have more than doubled, while petrol prices have risen almost 30 percent, making getting from point A to point B an increasingly expensive proposition in cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, home to more than 7 million motorcycles.
“Because the petrol price is so high, so many drivers are turning off the app, going home and just not working,” Nguyen said.
“After today, I will turn off the app and stop working for a few days to see if the price goes down or if the government is helping in any way.”
Vietnam’s government has rolled out a series of emergency measures to cushion the blow for citizens.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last month announced that an environmental tax on diesel, petrol, and aviation fuel would be suspended until April 15 to help stabilize prices. (Int’l News Desk)
