New milestone for Vietnam - China friendly neighbourliness

This is a particularly important foreign activity between the two nations in 2024, having had a huge impact on the development trend of relations between the two Parties and both countries in the long term to come.

This is the first overseas trip taken by General Secretary and President To Lam after being elected as General Secretary of the 13th Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee.

The Chinese Party and State’s highest level of reception, logistics, and security according to the protocol of a State visit demonstrates their recognition of the importance of the relationship with the Party, State, and people of Vietnam, as well as personally with General Secretary and President To Lam. During the visit, the top Vietnamese leader held 18 activities as part of  meaningful programmes.

The talks held following the welcome ceremony saw General Secretary and President To Lam affirm his wish to join his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and senior Chinese leaders in inheriting and promoting the long-standing tradition of friendship between the two sides, orienting the mutual relationship to enter a new stage of increasingly stable, sustainability, and long-term development.

Chinese General Secretary and President Xi Jinping strongly affirmed that China persists with its policy of friendship with the Vietnamese side, always considering the nation to be a priority direction and strategic choice in its neighbourly foreign policy.

A notable highlight of the visit was the top Vietnamese leader alongside his delegation heading to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, a revolutionary land of China and the region. This year is exactly 100 years since President Ho Chi Minh set foot in Guangzhou as an International Advisor to the Communist International.

According to Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and head of its Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung, the visit to Guangdong is of great significance as it represents an opportunity for both sides to review the traditional friendship, solidarity, and mutual assistance between the two Parties, two countries, and two peoples, thereby helping to create a more solid social foundation for joint ties.

In addition, looking forward to 2025 when both nations celebrate the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, the visit saw senior leaders decide to observe 2025 as the "Year of Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange" and will jointly launch a broad array of activities aimed at celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. 

This is viewed as an opportunity for both sides to step up communication and education regarding the traditional friendship, thereby further consolidating the social foundation.

Talking to the media in Beijing, Prof. Yu Xiangdong, director of the Institute for Vietnam Studies at the Zhengzhou University, said that the two countries enjoy  a long-standing tradition of friendship that has always been nurtured and developed, they have therefore obtained very important, profound, and widespread achievements  across multiple fields.

The China visit by General Secretary and President To Lam is a strategic choice based on the stable development of bilateral relations, demonstrating the consistent Vietnamese stance and choice of "bamboo diplomacy" policy, which is beneficial to the noble cause of modernisation that the CPV is constantly promoting. This is in line with the fundamental interests of the two nations and peoples, related to the happiness of the people of both sides, and also beneficial to maintaining and protecting peace, stability, development, and prosperity of the region and the world.

Prof. Yu emphasized that the visit is a symbolic event, showing the desire to continue the legacy of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is notably for having laid the foundation for the strategic and especially important relationship between the country and China.

Promoting deeper substantive co-operation

After more than 30 years of normalization, especially more than 15 years since the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership framework in 2008, diplomatic relations have made rapid and increasingly profound and comprehensive progress in a multitude of aspects.

In particular, after the historic official visit made to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in October, 2022, and the third State visit to Vietnam by Chinese General Secretary and President Xi Jinping in December, 2023, the two sides agreed to continue to deepen and further enhance the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership. This is along with building a Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future of strategic significance and opening a new chapter for bilateral relations.

Since the beginning of the year, joint ties have maintained a positive development momentum, with both sides assessing that the bilateral relationship is at its deepest, most comprehensive and substantial level ever, whilst economic - trade - investment co-operation continues to grow steadily.

On the basis that the relationship has been diligently cultivated by leaders of the two countries, including late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other Vietnamese leaders, both sides are keen to continue further promoting the positive and favourable development trend of the relationship achieved after the historic visits by the highest leaders of the two Parties and two countries in recent times.

During the State visit of General Secretary and President To Lam, the two sides issued a Joint Statement on further strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership, thereby serving to deepen the building of the Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future.

Both nations’ leaders paid great attention to and spent time discussing co-operation orientations in various fields, including agreeing to bolster ties in strategic areas such as diplomacy, defence, and public security; expanding co-operation connecting the "Belt and Road" initiative with the "Two Corridors, One Belt" framework; agreeing to accelerate the construction of "hard connections" in infrastructure, border gates, and railways across the border between the two countries; and strengthening "soft connections" in smart customs.

China is therefore willing to provide non-refundable aid to the Vietnamese side as it seeks to help the nation plan and conduct feasibility studies for railway routes connecting Vietnam with China in the North.

Ministries, sectors, and localities of the two countries have signed documents to implement practical collaboration across a variety of fields, including theoretical cooperation, training between the two Parties, transportation, banking, education, health, and trade. They also inked protocols on exporting Vietnamese agricultural products such has fresh coconuts, frozen durians, crocodile, with the signed documents vividly reflecting the determination of both sides to augment deeper substantive ties.

As one of the members of the Vietnamese delegation accompanying General Secretary and President To Lam on this State visit to China, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that the trip, following the success of late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to China back in 2022 and the visits between senior leaders of the Party and State of the two sides, has opened up a great opportunity to enhance agricultural trade between both sides. Indeed, Vietnam has identified China as one of the key markets for its agricultural exports.

Appreciating the development of relations between the two countries, including localities, Tran Quoc Cuong, secretary of Dien Bien provincial Party Committee, emphasized the opportunity to boost development, upgrade border gates, and transport infrastructure systems for the trade of goods. This is along with expanding ties in the fields of agriculture and forestry; dealing with non-traditional security issues such as epidemics; and intensifying people-to-people exchanges and locality-to-locality co-operation, especially educating young generations about the tradition of friendship between Vietnam and China.

The State visit to China by Party General Secretary and President To Lam and his spouse, along with the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, is therefore an important activity aimed at carrying out the Vietnamese foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification, including the policy of valuing and giving top priority to relations with China.

The high-level agreements and specific results achieved during the visit will continue to contribute to consolidating the favourable foreign situation, creating a peaceful and stable environment, offering more favourable conditions for spurring on socio-economic development, elevating the country's position and prestige, and successfully implementing the targets set by the 13th National Party Congress.