Party leader leaves Hanoi for official visit to China

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other Party and State leaders went to the airport to see General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and his delegation at the airport.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit is made right after the end of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, which is a particularly important foreign policy event for both Vietnam and China, thereby capturing the attention of both national and international public opinion.

The visit demonstrates the CPC and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping’s recognition  of importance to the position and international role of Vietnam and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong personally.

In recent years, ties between Vietnam and China have maintained a stable and positive trend. Their leaders have reached important common perceptions, helping take bilateral ties to new heights.

The two Parties have maintained high-level visits and established cooperation and exchange mechanisms between Party committees at the central level. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have maintained regular exchanges in flexible forms. From 2020-2022, the General Secretaries of the two Parties held four phone talks. President Nguyen Xuan Phuc talked on the phone with President Xi Jinping in May 2021, while the two Prime Ministers engaged in three phone talks, and the heads of the two legislatures held an online meeting in June last year.

During important political events of the two Parties, especially the 13th National Congress of the CPV and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in 2021, both sides exchanged special congratulations, indicating the great importance that they attach to the bilateral relations. The two sides effectively implemented cooperation plan for the 2016-2020 period. In April 2022, they signed a cooperation plan and another on personnel training cooperation between the two Parties for 2021-2025.

Cooperation via the State channel has been promoted effectively and substantially. Relations between sectors such as diplomacy, national defence and security continued to be reinforced. The two sides established a Steering Committee for Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation in November 2006, with 14 meetings being held with practical results.

In terms of economic, trade and investment cooperation, Vietnam has been China’s biggest ASEAN trade partner since 2016 and the sixth biggest trade partner globally since 2020.

In the first eight months of this year, two-way trade reached US$117.4 billion, up 10.8% from 2021. As of August 20, China ranked sixth among 139 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 3,453 valid projects and a total registered capital of US$22.42 billion. In January-August this year, China ranked fourth among 94 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 143 projects worth US$1.4 billion.

Health cooperation, especially in the fight against COVID-19, is a bright spot in the relationship between the two countries. China is one of the largest and fastest vaccine suppliers for Vietnam, with 7.3 million doses in donation and about 45 million doses in sales as of late 2021.

People-to-people exchanges, especially between young people, have become more and more practical, helping to deepen mutual understanding and friendship between the two Parties, countries and peoples. Other exchange activities like the Vietnam - China Border People's Festival and the Vietnam - China People's Forum also contributed to consolidating a solid friendship foundation for bilateral ties.

The official visit by the Vietnamese Party chief aims to affirm Vietnam's consistent policy of attaching importance to relations with China as a top priority, and the wish for a long-term, stable and increasingly effective development of bilateral ties as agreed by the two countries’ leaders.

The trip is also designed to actively carry out the foreign policy set at the 13th National Party Congress, and raise mutual understanding and political trust between the two parties, States and peoples, towards taking bilateral ties to a new development period, contributing to maintaining an environment of peace, stability, cooperation and development.