Top legislator begins official visit to China
VOV.VN - Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Vuong Dinh Hue left Hanoi on April 7, beginning an official visit to China at the invitation of Zhao Leji, head of the National People’s Congress of China.
Hue is being accompanied by a number of high-ranking Party and State officials, including Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of the Party Commission for Mass Mobilisation Bui Thi Minh Hoai, National Assembly Vice Chairman Tran Quang Phuong, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, and leaders of ministries in charge of national defence, public security.
This is the first high-level visit to China by a Vietnamese Party and State leader after the two countries upgraded their ties during the Vietnam visit in December 2023 by Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping.
The visit is of great significance as it will provide strategic direction for bilateral relations and concretize high-level common perceptions and results achieved during General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to China in October 2022 and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s visit to Vietnam in December 2023 with 6 major directions of cooperation.
Bilateral relations have in recent times developed positively and reaped important gains in all areas, through regular visit exchanges.
Economic, trade and investment cooperation is a bright spot in bilateral relations. China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and second largest export market, while Vietnam is China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN and fifth largest partner in the world, after the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Russia.
Two-way trade turnover between the two countries hit US$171.9 billion last year and US$27.3 billion in the first two months of 2024.
Last year, China invested US$4.47 billion in Vietnam, up 77.5% year on year, ranking fourth among foreign investors in terms of capital value and first in terms of project number in the Southeast Asian country.
Bilateral cooperation in culture, education, tourism and people-to-people exchanges also reaps fruitful results, contributing to consolidating social foundation in the two countries. To date, nearly 60 Vietnamese localities have established friendly cooperative ties with Chinese localities.
