Vietnamese officials see promising development in ties with China

Senior Vietnamese officials have hailed their ruling party chief's recent visit to China, saying it generated an important prerequisite for healthy and sustainable bilateral relations between the two countries as well as regional and global peace, stability, cooperation and development.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong paid an official visit to China from April 7 to 10, where he had talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and met with other top Chinese leaders including Premier Li Keqiang. The two sides released a China-Vietnam joint communique.

According to a CPV online newspaper report on Sunday, Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh said during Nguyen's meetings with Chinese leaders, the two countries decided to work together for mutual benefits through the signing of important cooperation agreements, especially in the fields of economy, transport and people-to-people exchange.

The agreements included one on the United Nations peacekeeping cooperation between Vietnamese and Chinese defense ministries.

He said the defense ministers of all members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations will meet with their Chinese counterpart in China in November to seek to reinforce defense cooperation.

Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said via the meetings, the two countries affirmed that they are close economic partners.

On the basis of a two-way trade value of 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, the two countries have set a target of 70 billion U.S. dollars by 2017.

Hoang said China promised to create favorable conditions for Vietnam to conduct trade promotion activities more effectively, adding that Vietnam has completed procedures needed for the opening of its first trade promotion office in China's Chongqing and is about to put similar agencies into operation in other Chinese localities.

Hoang believed that with Nguyen's successful China visit, economic ties between the two countries will become even closer in terms of both quality and quantity.

Meanwhile, Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh highlighted the signing of a large number of socioeconomic cooperation documents, including one on reviewing the plan on Vietnam-China socioeconomic cooperation for the 2012-2016 period.

Vinh said that in August he will lead an inter-sector delegation to work with the Chinese side on infrastructure cooperation projects, including the feasibility study on Vietnam's Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong express railway which will be linked with China's Yunnan province.

Hoang Binh Quan, head of the CPV Central Committee's Commission for External Relations, said the joint communique issued during Nguyen's visit has laid a solid foundation for the bilateral ties to develop in a healthy and sustainable manner.

Nguyen's visit was significant to bilateral ties as it is the highest-level meeting between the two countries' leaders, particularly when the countries had just marked the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic ties earlier this year.