Tokyo (VNA) – President Vo Van Thuong onNovember 28 thanked generations of Tokyo leaders for actively supporting themultifaceted cooperation between the capital city of Japan and Vietnameselocalities, especially Hanoi capital.

The leader, who is paying an official trip to Japan, made theremarks while joining Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko in visiting “Banh mi Xin chao”,a Vietnamese sandwich restaurant opened by two former students from Vietnam, inthe morning of the day.

The chain of “Banh mi Xin chao” restaurants was established in2016 by Bui Thanh Duy, 37, and Bui Thanh Tam, 32, who are brothers from thecentral province of Quang Nam. Weathering numerous initial difficulties, theyhave created many new flavours from the original “banh mi” of Quang Nam’sHoi An city. The chain now has 15 restaurants across Japan.

Via “banh mi”, they hope to help popularise the Vietnamesecuisine and culture as well as enthusiasm and wisdom of young Vietnamesepeople to locals, contributing to the solidarity anddevelopment of the Vietnamese community in Japan and to the cultural andeconomic ties between the two counties.

At the restaurant imbued with Vietnamese characteristics inTokyo, President Thuong, his spouse, and Japanese officials tasted typicaldishes of Vietnam such as “banh mi”, the Quang noodles, “pho”, coffee, freshspring rolls, and sweetened porridge.

Appreciating generations of local leaders’ promotion ofmultifaceted ties between Tokyo and Vietnamese localities, President Thuong alsohighly valued their facilitation for Vietnamese enterprises andpeople to do business and work in the city.

Henoted that Vietnam and Japan share many cultural and culinary similarities whichhave contributed to the particularly good relations between the two countriesand their peoples.

TheState leader said he is proud that more and more young people of Vietnam likethe two founders of “Banh mi Xin chao” have been exerting efforts to graspdevelopment opportunities in Japan. He also considered their efforts as a contributionto the popularisation of the Vietnamese culture here and the enhancement ofbonds between the two peoples.

Governor Koike congratulatedPresident Thuong on his successful talks with Japanese Prime Minister KishidaFumio, and on the leaders’ adoption of a joint statement on the elevation ofthe countries’ relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership for peaceand prosperity in Asia and the world”.

She described this as a greatly significant moment during theVietnamese leader’s visit, organised amid the 50th anniversary ofthe two countries’ diplomatic ties with numerous celebrations being held inboth countries.

She expressed her belief that the visit will be successful and create aparticularly important hallmark in bilateral relations.

The Governor added Tokyo is deploying a high-techanti-flooding system, and it is ready to cooperate with Vietnamese cities inthis field.

President Thuong called on Koike to continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese people to work, live, and study in Tokyo. He alsotook this occasion to thank leaders of major Japanese enterprises for investingin Vietnam, thus substantially helping with the country’s socio-economicdevelopment and life quality improvement.

The establishment of the comprehensivestrategic partnership is an important milestone heralding a new chapter ofbilateral relations, he went on.

He also asked the TokyoGovernor to promote the sharing of the city’s anti-fire and anti-flooding experiencewith Hanoi and other Vietnamese localities./.