Ambassador Bo confident of stronger development of Vietnam - China relations
VOV.VN - Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo has affirmed that the political trust between senior leaders of two Parties and States has continuously been deepened and promoted since the establishment of the Vietnam – China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership in 2008.
Bo made the comment ahead of Vietnamese State President Vo Van Thuong’s upcoming working trip to China where he will attend the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing at the invitation of Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping.
He told the press that top leaders of the two countries have maintained close contact and meetings to sketch out future cooperation plans between both sides.
Almost a year ago, he said Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited China where he held talks alongside Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping, and the two leaders later issued a joint statement. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has also visited China and attended multilateral meetings twice this year.
Along with high-level meetings, Bo said bilateral cooperation in the fields of economics, trade, and people-to-people exchanges are at the best of times in history.
According to the Ambassador, China has for many years maintained its position as Vietnam’s largest trading partner, while Vietnam has emerged as China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN. Most notably, the northern neighbour was the third largest foreign investor in the Vietnamese market last year and it jumped to second position in the past three quarters of this year.
Tourism cooperation is also a major highlight in bilateral relations as both sides boast great potential in this field, stressed the Ambassador, citing statistics that about 5.8 million Chinese residents travelled to Vietnam in 2019 before COVID-19 broke out.
Furthermore, he said that as both countries share common interests, they have worked closely together at multilateral forums to address challenges of regional and global concern.
Discussing the prospects of future relations, the Ambassador maintained that opportunities would outnumber challenges. In his view, despite global conflicts and disputes, important topics such as peace, co-operation, and development remain major trends, with the Asia-Pacific region serving as the driving force for further global economic growth.
In this context, both countries will have stronger voices, contributions, and influence in the international arena, he said.
Bo also emphasised that this stability of mutual cooperation is a particularly important factor for the development trend of relations between the two countries moving forward.
He once again affirmed that the political trust that exists between senior leaders of the two Parties and States would be increasingly strengthened and their top leaders’ common perceptions would continue to be the mainstream in shaping bilateral relations in the future.
