President Võ Văn Thưởng (L) meets Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member the Committee’s Secretariat and Chief of the Committee’s Office, in Beijing on October 19. VNA/VNS Photo

BEIJING – President of Việt Nam Võ Văn Thưởng met with Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, member of the Committee’s Secretariat and Chief of the Committee’s Office, in Beijing on October 19.

The two sides applauded the progress in the relations between the two Parties and the two countries, especially since the historic official visit to China by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng in late October 2022, as seen in frequent all-level delegation exchanges and meetings, many new and important achievements obtained, enhanced political trust, promoted economic and trade cooperation, and Chinese investment in Việt Nam reaching a new level.

They also discussed concrete measures for implementing the agreements reached between the two Parties and countries’ top leaders, and continuing to foster the friendship and cooperation across the board.

President Thưởng affirmed that Việt Nam and China are close neighbours and share similar political regimes, development paths, and goal of socialism building.

The Party, State, and people of Việt Nam attach importance to the reinforcement and development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with their Chinese counterparts, and consider this as the strategic choice and top priority in Việt Nam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, and multilateralisation and diversification of external relations, he stated.

He asked the two countries to keep close coordination and make good preparations for high-level mutual visits, strengthen cooperation between their ministries, sectors, and localities, promote substantive cooperation in all fields, and maintain the development trend of economic and trade ties.

The President called on China to continue expanding the import of Vietnamese farm produce, increase investment in major projects typical for its development level, step up the partnership in connecting the countries’ road and railway infrastructure, boost cooperation in developing the digital economy, digital infrastructure and digital manpower, and tighten cultural and people-to-people links to consolidate the foundation for their long-lasting friendship.

On the basis of the high-level common perceptions, the Vietnamese leader asked both sides to properly control and satisfactorily resolve differences and outstanding problems in bilateral relations in accordance with the United Nations Charter and international law, for the sake of the two peoples and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region.

At the meeting, Cai said Việt Nam and China are important neighbours of each other and share broad common interests. China always views Việt Nam as a priority in its neighbourhood foreign policy and is ready to join Việt Nam in increasing the strategic opinion exchange and promoting the unceasing development of sustainable and long-term relations between the two Parties and the two countries.

He suggested stepping up exchanges between their Parties, States, and peoples to further intensify friendship between the people of Việt Nam and China.

The senior CPC official also agreed on the need to foster economic and trade ties, transport infrastructure connectivity, and cooperation in the digital economy; encourage Chinese businesses to continue bolstering investment in Việt Nam; and increase the frequency and quality of locality-to-locality connections, thereby actively contributing to the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. VNS