General Secretary and President To Lam visits China: A new milestone in bilateral relations

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam To Lam and his wife will pay a State visit to the People's Republic of China from August 18-20.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized that this is a particularly important foreign activity between Vietnam and China this year, having a great impact on the development trend of relations between the two Parties and two countries in the long term to come.

Comprehensive and substantive bilateral relations

According to Minister Bui Thanh Son, after more than 30 years of normalization, especially more than 15 years since the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership framework in 2008, Vietnam-China relations have made rapid progress and are increasingly profound and comprehensive in all fields.

In particular, after the historic official visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in October 2022 and the third State visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping in December 2023, the two sides agreed to continue to deepen and further enhance the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership, build a Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future with strategic significance in the direction of “6 more”, opening a new chapter for bilateral relations.

"Since the beginning of 2024, the relationship between the two countries has maintained a positive development momentum, the atmosphere of cooperation has spread strongly to all levels, sectors and people. Both sides assessed that the bilateral relationship is at its deepest, most comprehensive and substantive level ever," Minister Bui Thanh Son affirmed.

Regarding the achievements of cooperation between the two countries, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son pointed out three outstanding aspects:

Firstly, exchanges and contacts at high and all levels from central to local levels are maintained regularly in many flexible forms, thereby contributing to enhancing political trust and creating new impetus for all levels and sectors of the two sides.

Since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has had two high-ranking delegations, including the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the National Assembly, visit and work in China. In addition, a number of Politburo members, Central Party Secretaries and leaders of many Vietnamese ministries, sectors and localities have also had exchanges and work trips to China.

The two sides also opened up new areas of cooperation, establishing additional high-level annual exchange mechanisms between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Chinese National People's Congress.

Recently, the Chinese Party and State expressed their special affection and respect for the passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a message of condolence; General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing; and sent a special representative, Politburo Standing Committee member and Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Wang Huning, to attend the funeral.

Second, economic-trade-investment cooperation continues to grow.

“We are impressed with the figures such as import-export turnover in the first 6 months alone increased by 24.1% compared to the same period in 2023, reaching 94.5 billion USD; the number of FDI projects in the first half of this year continued to rank first with 447 newly licensed projects with a total registered capital of nearly 1.3 billion USD; tourism recovered positively (in the first 7 months of 2024, there were 2.1 million Chinese visitors to Vietnam, higher than the whole year of 2023),” the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated.

Accordingly, agricultural cooperation between the two countries has made new progress with the two sides basically completing the procedures for official export of a number of Vietnamese agricultural products to China such as frozen durian, fresh coconut, fresh chili, passion fruit, etc.; people-to-people exchanges have been strengthened, the number of Vietnamese students studying in China has reached more than 23,000 people, double the number before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third, the overall land border situation remains stable; the situation in the East Sea is basically well controlled; exchange and negotiation mechanisms between the two sides on maritime issues are maintained regularly.

The two sides are aiming to organize activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Land Border Treaty and the 15th anniversary of the signing of three legal documents on the Vietnam-China land border.

Strengthening and developing comprehensive strategic partnership

According to the Foreign Minister, the State visit to China is the first foreign trip of General Secretary and President To Lam in his new position; it is a particularly important foreign activity between Vietnam and China this year, having a great impact on the development trend of the relationship between the two Parties and the two countries in the long term to come.

“The fact that General Secretary and President To Lam accepted the invitation of General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping to pay his first State visit to China after assuming his new position demonstrates the importance and top priority of both sides in consolidating and developing the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and building the Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future, which has strategic significance,” said Mr. Bui Thanh Son.

Accordingly, the two sides expect this visit to achieve results in the following areas:

Firstly, continuing and further promoting the positive and favorable development trend of Vietnam-China relations achieved after the historic mutual visits of the top leaders of the two Parties and two countries in recent times; maintaining high-level strategic exchanges, consolidating the foundation of political trust, and enhancing orientation for the development of bilateral relations in the new period.

Second, agree on major directions and measures to effectively build a Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future of strategic significance in line with the "6 more" orientation agreed upon by both sides; the focus is on continuing to concretize the high-level common perception and signed agreements; bringing substantive cooperation to new progress, especially in areas of mutual interest such as railway connection, agricultural trade, high-quality investment, monetary finance, culture-tourism, people-to-people exchange, etc.

Third, through frank, sincere and substantive exchanges on territorial border issues, we will jointly properly handle existing issues, better control and resolve disagreements at sea, and not let maritime issues affect the healthy development of relations between the two Parties and two countries, contributing to maintaining peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region as well as in the world.

“I believe that with the special attention and close coordination of both sides, the State visit to China by General Secretary and President To Lam and his wife will be a great success, becoming a new milestone, opening a new development stage for the friendly neighborly relationship, the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership, and the Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future of strategic significance,” Minister Bui Thanh Son affirmed.