Ambassador Pham Sao Mai: The visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping will elevate the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

Photo caption — Vietnamese Ambassador to China Pham Sao Mai gives an interview to a VNA correspondent in Beijing. Photo: VNA correspondent in Beijing

On this occasion, Vietnamese Ambassador to China Pham Sao Mai gave an interview to the Vietnamese press in the area about the relationship between the two countries as well as the meaning and importance of the visit.

Talking about the significance of General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping's visit to Vietnam this time for the Vietnam - China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Ambassador Pham Sao Mai said that this is Comrade Xi Jinping's third visit to Vietnam in his capacity as Head of the Party and State of China, taking place at a very meaningful time, right on the occasion of the two countries celebrating the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, continuing high-level exchange activities between the two Parties and the two countries since the historic visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (October 30 - November 1, 2022), demonstrating the importance of the Party and State of China and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping personally to the Vietnam - China relationship.

The senior leaders of the two Parties and countries will discuss in depth major and comprehensive orientations on deepening and enhancing the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China; promote the tradition of exchanges between senior leaders of the two Parties and countries to further consolidate political trust; actively promote increasingly in-depth cooperation in all areas, contributing to bringing the bilateral relationship to a new stage of development that is more substantial and effective. Inheriting the tradition of friendship and practices between the two sides, the Party, State and people of Vietnam attach great importance to the visit and will give General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping a special welcome, full of friendship and brotherhood.

In recent times, Vietnam-China relations have continued to maintain a stable development momentum, with new developments, especially after General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to China (October 30 - November 1, 2022). In that bright picture, talking about the most impressive highlight in the relationship between the two countries, Ambassador Pham Sao Mai said that, first of all, it is necessary to affirm that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's official visit to China (October 30 - November 1, 2022) has created a strong impetus for the two countries to continuously consolidate and strengthen the friendly neighborly relationship and comprehensive cooperation, creating a favorable foundation to bring Vietnam-China relations to a new, comprehensive and sustainable stage of development.

Over the past time, with the joint efforts of both sides, the Vietnam-China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership has continued to maintain a stable development momentum overall, achieving many important results. In particular, since the beginning of this year, after China optimized its COVID-19 prevention and control policies, direct exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have been officially restored and achieved many positive developments.

Regarding political relations, high-level exchanges and contacts have taken place closely, contributing significantly to enhancing political trust between the two Parties and the two countries. President Vo Van Thuong attended the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) hosted by China (October 2023); Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid an official visit to China and attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin (June 2023), attended the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 20th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) in Nanning (September 2023); Standing member of the Secretariat Truong Thi Mai visited and worked in China (April 2023).

During these trips, the two countries' senior leaders had many important contacts, continuing to propose major measures to effectively implement the important common perceptions of the two top leaders, creating a strong driving force to promote the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between Vietnam and China to develop stably and healthily. Cooperation and exchanges through the Party channel, between the two governments, the National Assembly/National People's Congress, the Fatherland Front/CPPCC as well as between important ministries and branches such as Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Public Security, etc., border localities and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries achieved many substantive results. The two sides have just successfully organized the 15th Meeting of the Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation Steering Committee (December 2023) with many rich results.

Economic and trade cooperation continues to be a bright spot in bilateral relations. In the context of declining trade between China and its partners, Vietnam is one of the few partners that has maintained stable trade with China. Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China in the first 10 months of the year reached 139.2 billion USD (according to Chinese customs data, it reached 185 billion USD).

China remains Vietnam's largest trading partner and second largest export market; while Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and China's eighth largest partner in the world. In terms of investment, in the first 11 months of 2023, China invested 3.06 billion USD in Vietnam, accounting for 18.7% of the total newly licensed foreign investment capital, ranking 4th (after Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong), but leading in the number of new investment projects in Vietnam (accounting for 22.1%). The two sides also actively coordinated to gradually remove and resolve outstanding problems in a number of previous economic cooperation projects.

Cooperation in other areas such as tourism, culture, and education continues to make progress. China has basically restored commercial flights to Vietnam; there are currently more than 200 flights between the two countries every week; in the first 11 months of 2023, 1.5 million Chinese visitors visited Vietnam; China has resumed issuing visas for Vietnamese students and workers returning to China.

The Vietnam-China land border remains peaceful and stable. The two sides have closely coordinated to implement legal documents on the Vietnam-China land border, strengthen security and safety management in border areas, and closely coordinated to properly handle issues arising on the basis of the three legal documents on the land border.

Regarding maritime issues, the two sides reached a common understanding on properly controlling disagreements, maintaining peace and stability at sea in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), while actively promoting negotiation mechanisms on maritime issues, fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and striving to build a substantive, effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

In addition, the two sides also actively coordinate at multilateral forums to promote peace, stability and cooperation in the region and the world, promote the central role of ASEAN, comply with the United Nations Charter and international law.

Public opinion believes that, in the context of the "both comrade and brother" relationship between the two countries is progressing well, this visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping will certainly create a new turning point, a new momentum for the relationship between the two countries. Commenting on this opinion, Ambassador Pham Sao Mai said that Vietnam and China have a long-standing traditional friendship, which has been built and nurtured by many generations of leaders and people of the two countries.

In the context of the current good development of the bilateral relationship, the State visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping will certainly create more momentum to deepen and elevate the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, creating a foundation for all levels and sectors of the two sides to actively deepen and expand cooperation, bringing practical benefits to the two Parties, two countries and two peoples.

Ambassador Pham Sao Mai said that in order to further promote the potential and strengths of bilateral relations, in the coming time, the two countries need to closely coordinate, seriously and fully implement the common perception of the high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and two countries as well as bilateral agreements, contributing to further strengthening political trust; jointly remove difficulties and obstacles, promote and improve the quality of substantive cooperation in all fields.

Ambassador Pham Sao Mai expressed his firm belief that, on the basis of advantages, potentials, needs and existing foundations of bilateral relations, with the determination and joint efforts of the two Parties, two countries and two peoples, the Vietnam-China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership will develop strongly in the coming time, for the benefit of the two peoples, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

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