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The official visit to China from April 7-10 by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the invitation of Chinese Party General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping attracted special attention from both countries and the world because the visit aimed at continually consolidating and reinforcing trust; maintaining peace, friendship and stability; promoting cooperation in all fields; creating an impetus for the development of bilateral relations and favourable conditions for the resettlement of the existing issues, making a contribution to maintain peace and enhance Vietnam’s position at the internal arena.
China is a neighbor and has a long-standing traditional friendship with Vietnam. It is now the largest partner of Vietnam. The two countries have similar political regimes and development paths and have established their comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership.
However, their ties experienced obstacles over a period of time, triggered by differences dealing with the East Sea issue, negatively affecting sentiments of their officials, Party members and society.
Therefore, the visit aimed at sincerely and frankly exchanging opinions with Chinese leaders on measures to fully restore and promote cooperation of mutual benefits in all fields, consolidate trust, strengthen the friendship, exchange orientations to control the situation, maintain peace and stability in the East Sea, for the benefits of people in the two countries, the region and the world.
During the visit, Vietnam and China issued the Vietnam-China joint communiqué of nine points affirming the outcomes of the visit and key perceptions reached between Party and State leaders about the 65-year history of bilateral diplomatic ties, strengthening political trust, promoting full and practical cooperation, maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea and developing the bilateral relationship in a healthy, stable and sustainable fashion for the sake of the two countries’ people as well as the regional and international communities.
In the spirit of openness and sincerity, the two sides proposed several important orientations to strengthen the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership as follows:
First of all, the two sides reached a consensus on restoring fully and boosting cooperation of mutual benefits in many fields, including the good implementation of the “Master Plan on Vietnam – China Economic and Trade Cooperation for the 2012-2016 period” and the portfolio of key cooperative projects and signed economic and trade agreements.
China agreed to remove its recent warning that Chinese citizens avoid travelling to Vietnam and the two sides officially declared the establishment of working groups on currency and infrastructure cooperation and signed seven cooperative documents in some aspects.
Secondly, the two sides reached consensus on measures to reinforce trust, strengthen the friendship and maintain stability and the healthy development of the two countries’ relations through the facilitation of high-ranking visits. The Party General Secretary invited the General Secretary and President Xi Jinping to pay an official visit to Vietnam soon and he accepted the invitation with pleasure.
Thirdly, the two sides exchanged opinions on sea-related issues in a sincere and straightforward manner, stressing the compliance with important common perceptions reached between senior leaders of the two Parties and States, and the serious implementation of the “Agreement on Basic Principles Guiding the Settlement of Vietnam-China Sea-related Issues”; effectively utilising the Government-level negotiation mechanism on Vietnam-China boundaries and territorial issues, persistently using friendly negotiations to seek basic and long-term solutions acceptable to both sides, actively studying transitional solutions that do not affect the stances and policies of each side, including actively studying and discussing cooperation for common development.
Working together to manage disputes at sea, fully and effectively implementing the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea” (DOC), they will soon create a “Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea” (COC) on the basis of consultation and consensus, not taking actions that can further complicate and expand disputes; timely and satisfactorily settling arising problems, maintaining the overall situation of the Vietnamese-Chinese relations and peace and stability in the East Sea.
The two sides agreed to promote activities of the Working Group in cooperation for common development at sea, increase cooperation in less sensitive areas, firmly pushing negotiations on demarcation of the waters off the mouth of the Tonkin Gulf, actively boost cooperation for common development in these waters, and start joint surveys of the waters off the mouth of the Tonkin Gulf within this year.
In all meetings and talks, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong persistently emphasised the requirement for strengthening the guidelines for implementation by consistent, practical agreements in line with the spirit “words go well with deeds”.
It may be said that this official visit to China by Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong left many remarkable imprints. China attached much importance to this visit and welcomed the Vietnamese Party General Secretary and the delegation with the highest reception rituals for a Head of State. They included a welcoming ceremony with a 21-gun salute, two banquets held by Chinese Party General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping and Chinese leaders. The Vietnamese delegations were also received, escorted and seen off at the airport by the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister.
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