Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will make an official visit to Vietnam from October 13-15 at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The upcoming visit, the first by a high-ranking Chinese leader since the country’s new leadership took office, is of great significance to reinforcing political trust and promoting the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China .

Since the normalisation of the bilateral relations in 1991, the Vietnam-China friendship and cooperation have developed strongly and intensively in all fields, bringing practical benefits to both nations.

The two countries have signed many cooperation agreements, thus creating a legal foundation for their long-term cooperative relationship.

Relations in such important areas as diplomacy, security and defence have been boosted through the implementation of the agreements reached in the fields.

Annually, the two sides exchange over 200 visits of delegations at all levels, contributing to enhancing understanding and boosting cooperation between the two nations.

Meanwhile, ties between Vietnamese and Chinese localities have been also stepped up through agreements and exchanges.

In the field of economics, China remained one of Vietnam ’s leading trade partners since 2004.

In 2012, two-way trade turnover between the two countries topped over 41 billion USD and in the first eight months of this year, the bilateral trade hit 31.8 billion USD.

High-ranking leaders of the two nations have met and proposed many measures to maintain the growth of the bilateral trade, while improving trade balance.

The investment cooperation between the two sides has also leapt forwards as many big Chinese groups hope to invest in Vietnam .

As of the end of August 2013, China had 934 projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 4.79 billion USD, standing 13 th among the 101 countries and territories to have invested in the country.

Over the recent years, China has constantly provided preferential loans and grants to Vietnam .

The country has lent Vietnam 1.6 billion USD, focused in the fields of industry, mining, railway development, energy, textiles and chemistry.

Cooperation between Vietnam and China in education, culture and sport has also grown, with China providing 140 long-term and short-term scholarships every year. At present, about 13,500 Vietnamese students are studying in China , while about 3,500 Chinese students are being trained in Vietnam .

The issues of borders and territory are also a focus of attention of the two countries. After nomalising bilateral relations, in 1993, the two nations signed an agreement on the basic principles for resolving territorial and border issues. They have also conducted negotiations on land border, Bac Bo ( Tonkin ) Gulf delimitation and the issue at sea ( East Sea ).

Leaders of the two nations held many discussions on the East Sea issue. In a multilateral framework, ASEAN, including Vietnam , and China have signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), the guidelines for the implementation of the DOC and the ASE AN-China Joint Statement and others.

On the occasion of the visit, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his counterpart Li Keqiang will discuss and map out measures to further promote cooperation between the two countries in all areas, especially in economics and trade.

They also will exchange their views on regional and international issues of common concern.

Source: VNA