Sharing his host’s delight at the development trend of the bilateral relations since the historic visit to China in late 2022 by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong, PM Chinh, who is paying an official visit to China, emphasised that the Party, State, and people of Vietnam consistently attach importance to promoting the sound relations with the fraternal Chinese Party, Government, and people.

This is the consistent policy, the strategic choice, and the top priority in Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of external relations, he said.

Premier Li stressed that China always considers Vietnam as a priority direction in its foreign policy with neighbouring countries and supports Vietnam to successfully carry out national industrialisation and modernisation and raise its position in the world.

At the talks, the two leaders agreed to promote the effective implementation of the Vietnam - China joint statement on the continued enhancement of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership; while maintaining exchanges and meetings at all levels as well as between the two Parties, the two Governments, the National Assembly of Vietnam and the National People’s Congress of China, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

They agreed to bring into play the role of the Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in coordinating cooperation fields; expand collaboration in key areas such as diplomacy, defence, and security; boost practical cooperation in spheres and friendship exchanges between localities and people’s organisations of the two countries; build the shared land border into a border of peace, stability, cooperation and development; and properly control differences, maintain peace and stability at sea; and foster coordination at international and regional forums.

PM Chinh underlined that both sides should make use of their geographical advantages and complementarity to step up result-oriented cooperation.

He proposed China to accelerate the opening of its market to agricultural and aquatic products of Vietnam; create conditions for the early establishment of trade promotion offices of Vietnam in Chengdu city of Sichuan province and Haikou city of Hainan province; coordinate to improve the customs clearance capacity to avoid goods congestion at border gates; work together to thoroughly deal with problems of some cooperation projects in the spirit of “harmonising interests and sharing risks”; and speed up the implementation of China’s non-refundable aid packages for Vietnam.

The Vietnamese PM suggested the two sides reinforce ties in finance, agriculture, transport, environment, health care, and science - technology, with a focus on digital transformation, green growth, circular economy, and climate change fight; exchange experience in macro-economic management and governance of financial and monetary policies; along with crop production, agricultural processing, disease control, and protection of fishery resources in the Gulf of Tonkin.

He recommended the two nations to enhance rail, road, and sea connectivity and soon sign an agreement on search and rescue at sea; comprehensively resume commercial flights; strengthen cooperation in managing water resources in the Mekong - Lancang river basin; properly carry out the agreements on educational, cultural and tourism cooperation; and hold people-to-people exchanges in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (second row, left) and Chinese Premier Li Qiang (second row, right) witness the signing and announcement of four cooperation documents between ministries, sectors and localities of the two countries. (Photo: VNA)