Vietnamese FM pays official visit to China
VOV.VN - Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son is paying an official visit to the People's Republic of China from December 2 to December 4 following an invitation sent by State Councilor Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
This trip marks the first official visit to the northern neighbour by the Vietnamese Foreign Minister since the 13th National Party Congress.
Most notably, receiving foreign ministers from other countries as part of official visits is the highest form of direct diplomacy that China is carrying as it continues to pursue a "Zero COVID" strategy.
The visit is therefore taking place amid the relationship between the two countries continuing to maintain a stable development trend.
Since the 13th meeting of the Steering Committee for Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation, high-level and all-level meetings have continued to be maintained in a flexible manner. This includes phone talks between Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping this year and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s attendance at the Special Summit to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China relations in 2021.
Economic, trade, and investment co-operation continues to enjoy growth, with 10-month turnover reaching US$133.65 billion, thereby exceeding the turnover for the whole of 2020, and marking a rise of 29.23%.
Amid the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project officially entering commercial operation, the two sides have continued to discuss a range of measures aimed at facilitating greater import and export activities, accelerating the implementation of non-refundable aid for Vietnam, and have agreed to soon hold a meeting of the Working Group on Trade Facilitation.
Co-operation in COVID-19 prevention and control has yielded numerous positive results, with the nation receiving 3.5 million vaccine doses donated by China and 20 million doses commercially ordered by the Government.
Both sides have maintained exchanges regarding land border management and deployed a number of mechanisms in terms of sea-related negotiations.
However, co-operation between the two countries still encountered some problems, with some Vietnamese products yet to enter the Chinese market due to strict regulations on pandemic prevention and control.
Moving forward, China is set to apply a number of new regulations relating to the inspection of food and agricultural products from January, 2022.
Despite no major incidents being reported in the East Sea, the situation there continues to endure complicated developments.