PM’s trip to promote cooperation among Vietnamese, Chinese localities

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) receives Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Lan Tianli in Kunming on November 6. (Photo: VNA)

Thriving Vietnam-China ties

Vietnam and China set up their diplomatic relations on January 18, 1950. Over the past 74 years, the main stream in Vietnam-China relations is friendship and cooperation.

In 2008, the two countries elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, the highest cooperation framework with most extensive and deepest content in Vietnam’s relations with other countries. China was the first country to share such partnership with Vietnam.

Thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, the Vietnam-China relations have maintained stable development momentum and achieved positive results. After the historic visits by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (October 2022) and Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping (December 2023), the two Parties and countries have defined new positioning for bilateral relations, continuing to deepen and elevate the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

They have worked to build the Vietnam-China Community of shared future that carries strategic significance, providing strong impetus for both sides to continuously consolidate and strengthen their friendly relations and comprehensive cooperation. The two countries have outlined “six major” directions, namely higher political trust, more practical and deeper defence - security cooperation, more substantive and deeper cooperation, more solid social foundation, closer multilateral coordination, and better control and settlement of differences.

Particularly, the China visit by Party General Secretary and State President To Lam in August 2024 marked a new milestone in bilateral relations. During the visit, the two countries issued a joint statement on further strengthening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and building a Vietnam-China community with a shared future, while ministries, sectors, and localities of the two sides signed many cooperation agreements in various fields.

Economic, trade, and investment cooperation between Vietnam and China has continuously deepened and become more substantial. Bilateral trade turnover reached 171.9 billion USD in 2023, and 148.6 billion USD in the first nine months of 2024. China remains Vietnam's largest trade partner and the second-largest export market, while Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and the fifth-largest globally.

Regarding investment, as of October 2024, China's total registered FDI in Vietnam hit 29.9 billion USD, with 4,965 projects underway, making China the sixth largest among the 148 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

The two countries have actively coordinated at multilateral forums to promote peace, stability, and cooperation in the region and the world as well as ASEAN's central role, the adherence to the United Nations Charter, and the implementation of international law.

Vietnam-China locality-to-locality cooperation promoted

Cooperation among localities, especially border provinces and areas of the two countries, has been continuously strengthened through various forms. During his trip to China from November 5-8, in addition to participating in the 8th GMS Summit, the 10th ACMECS Summit, and the 11th CLMV Summit, PM Chinh is scheduled to visit and carry out important activities in Yunnan province and Chongqing city.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to China Pham Sao Mai, this reflects the continuation of the tradition of high-level exchanges between the two Parties and two countries, as well as the strong emphasis placed by the Party, State, and the Government of Vietnam on the Vietnam-China relationship, especially the implementation of the high-level perceptions and agreements signed between the two sides from the perspective of localities. This promotes localities to optimise their potential and advantages as well as supplementary advantages, expanding and improving the effectiveness and quality of cooperative areas, benefiting both sides and heading to the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations and the "Year of Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange" in 2025.

Ambassador Mai said that over the years, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan province have shared strong cooperation, especially in economy and trade. In the first eight months of 2024, two-way trade reached 2.09 billion USD, an increase of 30.31% compared to the same period last year.

In the future, Yunnan and Vietnamese localities will continue to expand and enhance the effectiveness of cooperation in areas such as delegation exchanges, economic trade and investment, border gate development, transportation connectivity, border management, and tourism. Additionally, with their geographical proximity, long-standing tradition of friendly relations, and cultural similarities, the two sides will carry out more cultural exchange activities. These efforts will help strengthen friendly relations and mutual understanding between the peoples, particularly those in the border areas of both countries.

Meanwhile, Chongqing is an important economic development centre in the western region of China. The locality is where President Ho Chi Minh used to live in and has welcomed many Vietnamese Party and State leaders.

Since 2019, Vietnam has been the largest trade partner of Chongqing among the ASEAN countries. In the first seven months of 2024, the import-export turnover between Vietnam and Chongqing reached 3.03 billion USD, including Vietnam's exports of 1.88 billion USD.

By the end of July 2024, Vietnam had operated five investment projects in Chongqing with a total capital of 8.1 million USD. Meanwhile, Chongqing had invested in 22 projects in Vietnam with 296 million USD. Vietnamese localities and Chongqing still have significant potential to further deepen and make their cooperation more substantial in many areas such as infrastructure connections, trade, high-tech industries, green transition and digital transformation, as well as tourism./.