VIETNAM, September 25 - TOKYO — Vietnamese State President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and a high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Party and State arrived on Sunday afternoon at Haneda International Airport, Tokyo, for the State funeral of former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe.

The funeral activities will last from September 25-28.

The visit was conducted on a commercial flight, along with many other people who also went to Japan from Hà Nội.

Accompanying President Phúc were members of the Party Central Committee: Lê Khánh Hải, Chairman of the President's Office; Nguyễn Chí Dũng, Minister of Planning and Investment; Vũ Hải Hà, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly; along with Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Minh Vũ, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee's Foreign Affairs Committee Ngô Lê Văn, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Trần Quốc Khánh, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyễn Văn Hồi, and Assistant to the President Bùi Huy Hùng.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was born on September 21, 1954.

During his time in office, with special affection for Việt Nam, had Abe visited Việt Nam a total of four times.

The Japanese leader always attached great importance to and interest to promoting bilateral relations.

He is also the signatory of the Joint Statement "Towards a Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia" in 2006, setting the first milestone for the framework of the Strategic Partnership between Việt Nam and Japan. He signed a Joint Statement on upgrading relations to an Extensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia in March 2014.

Japan will hold national mourning for Shinzo Abe on September 27. This is the second time since World War II that the Japanese government has decided to hold a State funeral for a former Prime Minister (the first was the late Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru in 1967).

About 6,000 foreign guests are expected to attend the event, including heads of state, heads of government, and representatives of countries.

According to the programme, President Phúc will represent the leaders of the Party and State to attend the State funeral of the Japanese PM, attend the reception for heads of delegations from other countries hosted by the Emperor of Japan, and have a meeting with the incumbent Japanese PM Kishida Fumio.

The President will also have meetings with leaders of Japan's National Assembly, receive leaders of a number of Japanese localities, and meet bilaterally with a number of heads of delegations from other countries also attending the State funeral.

Abe was assassinated by a 41-year-old man on the morning of July 8, 2022, while delivering a campaign speech for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in Nara City. — VNS