President Tran Dai Quang (Photo: VNA)The visit creates an opportunity for the two countries to further improvebilateral cooperation along the trend of development in 2016 and early 2017.
Vietnamand China have continued to exchange regular high-level visits and meetingssince last year.
Notablewere the visits to China by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in January2017 and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in September 2016. President Tran DaiQuang and China’s Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping met at theAPEC Summit in Peru in November 2016, while Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc metwith Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the 11th ASEM in Mongolia in July2016. Also that year, Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of theChinese National People’s Congress visited Vietnam in November.
Throughthose visits, the two sides agreed to respect each other, increase politicaltrust and deepen win-win cooperation while well controlling and settlingexisting disputes and arising matters in order to promote the bilateralpartnership in a healthy and stable manner.
Relationsbetween the Vietnamese and Chinese Parties have been reinforced with the firstever meeting among representatives of the two Politburos held in October 2016and the 12th theoretical workshop between the two Parties inDecember 2016, and cooperation in cadres training.
Bothsides have coordinated to successfully implemented cooperation mechanisms suchas the 10th meeting of the steering committee on bilateralcooperation in April 2017, the third border defence friendship exchange inMarch 2016, the sixth defence dialogue in November 2016, and the second deputyministerial level security dialogue in September 2016.
Collaborationbetween ministries and departments has been promoted, especially in externalaffairs, defence and public security. The two sides held the first marinepolice conference in August 2016 and the deputy foreign ministers’ meeting inMarch 2017.
Localitieshave also enhanced people-to-people exchanges via various activities such asfriendly meetings between Vietnamese and Chinese people, and the thirdVietnam-China youth festival in November 2016.
Accordingto Vietnamese statistics, two-way trade reached nearly 72 billion USD in 2016,a year-on-year rise of 7.9 percent, of which Vietnam’s exports accounted fornearly 22 billion USD worth of goods (up 28.4 percent) and imports about 50billion USD (down 0.9 percent).
Chinacontinued to be the largest trade partner of Vietnam while Vietnam has become amajor trade partner of China in ASEAN. Bilateral trade topped 19 billion USD inthe first three months of 2017, a yearly increase of 27.5 percent.
Asof March 2017, China had 1,615 investment projects worth 11.2 billion USD inVietnam, ranking eighth out of the 116 countries and territories investing inVietnam.
Chinaalso led in the number of tourists to Vietnam with 2.7 million in 2016 (ayear-on-year rise of 51 percent), while Vietnam led in ASEAN in the volume ofvisitors to China with 2.2 million. Some 950,000 Chinese holidaymakers arrivedin Vietnam in January-March this year.
Thetwo countries maintained a stable situation along their border line on land andin the Gulf of Tonkin. They conducted the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-ChinaLand Border Joint Committee in January 2017 and signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding on cooperation in breeding and protecting aquatic resources inthe Gulf of Tonkin in January 2017.
Sincethe beginning of 2017, Vietnam and China have maintained exchanges on maritimeissues and agreed to abide by common perceptions reached by their Party andState leaders and the agreement on the basic principles guiding the settlementof marine matters, as well as to effectively use governmental-level negotiationmechanisms on land border and sea-related issues.
Theyagreed to seek long-term solutions acceptable to both side to address maritimeissues while implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the EastSea, soon building the Code of Conduct in the East Sea, effectively controllingdisputes at sea without actions to complicate and expand disputes, andmaintaining peace and stability in the East Sea.
Thepresence of President Tran Dai Quang at the high-level forum on the Belt andRoad Initiative in Beijing from May 14-15 aims to maintain the developmentmomentum of the cooperation between the two countries’ Parties and States,increase political trust and bilateral cooperation efficiency in economics,trade and investment, and popularise Vietnam’s investment attraction policiesfor Chinese businesses.
Hisparticipation is also intended to reinforce common awareness of the twocountries’ leaders about sustaining peace, stability and acceleratingnegotiations on maritime issues to promote regional and internationalintegration, connectivity and cooperation.
On the occasion of PresidentQuang’s upcoming visit to China, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam HongXiaoyong wrote an article which was published by the newspaper “Nhan dan”(People).
Theambassador highlighted the “One Belt, One Road” initiative of China which hasreceived response from and support of more than 100 nations and internationalorganisations, while more than 40 countries and global organisations havesigned cooperation deals with China.
Chinesebusinesses have poured some 50 billion USD into major projects in countriesalong the Belt and Road under the initiative, he noted.
Vietnamis an important nation in this initiative, he said, adding that along with the developmentof the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, bothcountries are holding discussion on connecting the initiative with the “TwoCorridors, One Belt”.
Theambassador stressed that Vietnam and China are enjoying stable and mutuallybeneficial relations.
Henoted that China attaches great importance to President Quang’s upcoming visit,which is expected to propel the cooperative partnership forward.
ThePresident’s attendance at the high-level forum on the Belt and Road Initiativewill further bilateral connectivity and create new vitality for cooperativerelations, he added.-VNA
VNA
