China and Vietnam must build stronger ties, 'shared destiny', Xi Jinping tells counterpart
Beijing and Hanoi should further strengthen cooperation while properly handling their disputes in the South China Sea, President Xi Jinping told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday.
"The two sides should properly handle our maritime issues, accelerate joint maritime development and together maintain regional peace and stability," Xi said to Chinh at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
Their meeting followed on Xi's visit with Hanoi's leadership last December and took place as China seeks to bolster ties with Vietnam amid fierce competition with the United States for regional influence.
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Chinh's working trip came on the heels of an official visit to Hanoi last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And it marked the prime minister's first official visit since Vietnam's political turmoil in March when three of its top five leaders stepped down.
On Wednesday, Xi restated his pledge made in December with Vietnamese Communist Party boss Nguyen Phu Trong to build a "China-Vietnam community of shared destiny with strategic significance".
The two countries should expand cooperation in their economies and trade, the Chinese leader said, as well as maintain high-level exchanges and advance the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing's global trade and infrastructure investment scheme.
"China is willing to encourage more Chinese enterprises to increase their investment in Vietnam and [we] hope that the Vietnamese side will provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises," Xi said.
For its part, Vietnam regarded strategic mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation with China to build a community of shared destiny a "top priority and strategic choice" in its foreign policy, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted Chinh as saying.
"This cannot be undermined by outside provocations and interference," Chinh reportedly said.
Vietnam supported China's entry to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the prime minister added, and "opposes the politicisation of trade and tech issues".
Chinh said Vietnam was willing to boost multilateral collaboration and manage differences "appropriately".
During his trip to China, Chinh attended the World Economic Forum in Dalian. There he met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and called for enhanced trade and investment.
China is Vietnam's largest trading partner and a major foreign investor.
In recent years, Vietnam has become a popular destination for manufacturing and supply chains as some companies exit China against the backdrop of Sino-American trade tensions.
At the same time, Hanoi has elevated aspects of its relations with Washington and its allies into strategic partnerships.
Notwithstanding closer Sino-Vietnamese economic ties, the neighbouring Asian countries have unresolved territorial disputes in the South China Sea, alongside claims by the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.
China and Vietnam have each argued they have rights to the resource-rich waters and built artificial islands to reinforce actual control there. In 1974 they fought briefly over the Paracel Islands and in 1988 engaged in a military skirmish over the Spratly Islands.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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