Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh on Sunday joined hands to tackle the territorial claims that China makes on the nearby waters, media reports said on Wednesday.

Kishida and Chinh held talks on the sidelines of the Group of (G7) summit in Japan’s western city of Hiroshima, in which the leaders from the advanced economies discussed how to counter China’s increasing military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region, reports South China Morning Post.

Tokyo and Hanoi have been deepening bilateral relations, as they have been involved in territorial disputes with Beijing in the East and South China seas, respectively.

Japan pledged to provide official development aid worth around 60.98 billion yen (US$440 million) to fund Vietnam’s infrastructure projects and policy steps to prop up the economy from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The collaboration between Tokyo and Hanoi comes after Vietnam last week criticised the recent conduct in the South China Sea of a Chinese research ship and the Philippines coastguard, accusing its neighbours of separate actions that were violating its sovereign rights.