Ahead of the State visit of General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping to Vietnam, Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Center Shi Zhongjun said that China and Vietnam are two good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners; geographically located with mountains connecting mountains and rivers connecting rivers. In recent years, the two countries' senior leaders have maintained regular exchanges.

This state visit by General Secretary and President Xi Jinping to Vietnam is the next important visit since his historic visit to Vietnam in December 2023, and is also an important visit after General Secretary and President To Lam's visit to China in August 2024. This is also the first visit by a senior Chinese leader after the Central Conference on work related to neighboring countries. just ended last week

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam and the China-Vietnam People's Exchange Year, as well as the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the final year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan.

At present, China is comprehensively promoting the great national rejuvenation by means of Chinese-style modernization; Vietnam is also accelerating the process of industrialization and modernization. The process of building socialism in both China and Vietnam is at a crucial stage.

Under the strategic planning and direct promotion of the senior leaders of the two Parties and two countries, the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperation has achieved great results with many outstanding features; the close multilateral coordination and cooperation not only brings benefits to the two Parties, two countries and peoples, but also brings stability and certainty to a volatile and unstable world.

Secretary General Shi Zhongjun believes that through this visit, the senior leaders of the two countries will, from a high-level and long-term strategic vision, set out new directions for the development of the China-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership in the next stage; consolidate traditional friendship, enhance strategic mutual trust, focus on key areas and directions to build a China-Vietnam community of shared future of strategic significance; promote the relations between the two Parties and the two countries to a new height, and jointly promote regional stability and prosperity as well as the peaceful development and progress of mankind.

Regarding the prospects for cooperation in the coming time, the Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Center said that in recent years, China-Vietnam economic and trade cooperation has continued to reach new heights. China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner since 2004 and Vietnam has been China's largest trading partner in ASEAN since 2016.

Bilateral trade has exceeded the 200 billion USD mark for four consecutive years. According to data from China Customs, in 2024, China-Vietnam trade reached 260.65 billion USD, up 13.5% year-on-year. Of which, China's export turnover reached 161.89 billion USD, up 17.7% year-on-year; imports reached 98.76 billion USD, up 7.2% year-on-year.

China is Vietnam's largest agricultural export market, accounting for 65.2% of Vietnam's total fruit and vegetable export turnover. Vietnam has established official export channels for 14 key agricultural products to the Chinese market, including durian, bird's nest, sweet potato, dragon fruit, longan, rambutan, mango, jackfruit, watermelon, banana, etc.

These products account for about one-fifth of China's total agricultural imports from ASEAN. Vietnam's high-quality agricultural products are widely favored by Chinese consumers. Vietnam is also an important foreign investment destination for China. In 2024, direct investment by Chinese enterprises in Vietnam will exceed 2.5 billion USD, maintaining a rapid growth rate.

Mr. Su Trung Tuan affirmed that China and Vietnam have their own advantages in economic development, the two sides complement each other strongly and have great potential for economic and trade cooperation. With the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 and the upgrading of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), economic and trade cooperation between the two countries will have more opportunities for development.

In the future, the two countries need to further strengthen the connection of development strategies, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, continue to expand two-way trade and investment, actively build pilot cross-border economic cooperation zones, jointly build safe and stable industrial chains and supply chains, and further improve the level of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

The two sides need to continue to effectively implement the “Belt and Road” initiative and the “Two Corridors, One Belt” framework, enhance policy coordination, and innovate cooperation models. In addition to accelerating “hard connections” in railway, highway, and border infrastructure, the two sides also need to enhance “soft connections” such as smart customs; promote the integrated development of cross-border e-commerce and traditional domestic industries; strengthen cooperation in areas such as digital transformation, online tourism, smart cities, and artificial intelligence (AI); and further exploit the potential for cooperation in the digital economy. In addition, Vietnam has developed a national green growth strategy.

With the addition of relevant regulations and cooperation contents in the green economy field in the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, the space and prospects for cooperation between China and Vietnam in the fields of clean electricity, new energy automobiles, environmental governance, green transformation, green finance, etc. are also very open.

Regarding cultural exchanges, according to Secretary General Shi Zhongjun, the two sides need to seize the opportunities of the China-Vietnam Cultural Exchange Year and the China-ASEAN Cultural Exchange Year this year to continuously strengthen the friendship between the two peoples.

Actively explore deeper educational cooperation, expand international student exchanges; promote cooperation in the fields of vocational education, education-industry integration, teacher training and fostering, digital education, etc.; strengthen cultural exchanges, enhance cultural understanding through joint art performances, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions and joint broadcasting of film and television works; expand tourism cooperation, encourage more Chinese tourists to Vietnam and support the increase of flights between the two countries; optimize cross-border tourism routes, promote unique tourism products to each other, attract two-way tourist flows; strengthen youth exchanges, enhance understanding and friendship between the younger generation through various youth exchange and dialogue activities, and promote the inheritance of the traditional friendship between China and Vietnam.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chuyen-tham-dua-quan-he-giua-hai-dang-hai-nuoc-trung-viet-len-tam-cao-moi-310995.html