Vietnamese, Chinese Party leaders discuss trade, maritime cooperation

Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng on Friday held phone talks with the Chinese Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping. VNA/VNS Photo Trí Dũng

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng on Friday held phone talks with Chinese Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping, highlighting free trade agreements, cross-border economic cooperation, pandemic control, border management, and maritime cooperation.

General Secretary Trọng congratulated the great achievements that the Chinese people have achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China during the past 100 years and highly appreciated China's success in pandemic control and socio-economic development.

The Vietnamese leader congratulated the 72nd anniversary of China's National Day and expressed his belief that the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with President Xi at the core, will successfully realise the goal of building China into a modern, strong, democratic, harmonised and beautiful socialist country.

General Secretary Trọng said that though the COVID-19 pandemic had deep impacts on all aspects of life as well as exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, the Việt Nam-China relationship would continue to maintain the development momentum.

Trọng expressed his thanks to China for sharing experiences and supporting Việt Nam with vaccines in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He expressed his wish that the two sides would continue to give high priority to the implementation of the cooperation in COVID-19 prevention and control along with post-pandemic recovery and development.

The Vietnamese leader said Việt Nam attached great importance to the friendly, neighbourly friendship and the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China.

He emphasised promoting political relations, including strengthening exchanges at high levels, as well as ministerial and local levels.

Trọng proposed strengthening substantive cooperation in all fields so that this would become the foundation and driving force for the development of the two countries.

The General Secretary suggested the two sides continue to implement the agreements reached, including agreements on free trade and the cross-border economy while recommending China continue to create favourable conditions to develop trade between the two countries in a more balanced way.

He also proposed China speed up the licensing procedures for the import of a number of Việt Nam’s agricultural products and asked for increased investment in large projects, jointly solve difficulties and problems, and continue promoting people-to-people exchanges at all levels in different forms.

The Vietnamese leader also suggested continuing to closely cooperate on border management and protection, strictly implement legal documents on the land border between the two countries, build a peaceful, stable, and cooperative border.

The two sides should continue to improve the efficiency of maritime cooperation, promote discussions and negotiations on delimitation while cooperating with each other, properly handle maritime issues and actively cooperate with ASEAN in negotiating a practical and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Chinese Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping congratulated Việt Nam on the occasion of its 76th National Day.

He thanked Việt Nam for coordinating with China to organise many activities on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

He also expressed his appreciation to General Secretary Trọng for sending congratulatory messages and accepting the invitation to attend and speak at the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit.

President Xi highly appreciated the achievements made by the Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Party and Government of Việt Nam in recent years.

He expressed confidence that the Party, Government, and people of Việt Nam would successfully implement the goals and tasks set out by its 13th National Party Congress.

The Chinese leader also expressed support for the Party and people of Việt Nam to follow the socialist path in accordance with the country's conditions, and the country’s fight against the pandemic and socio-economic development.

He affirmed that China attached great importance to the traditional friendly, neighbourly relationship with Việt Nam, expressed his wishes and willingness to work with the Party, Government, and people of Việt Nam to continue strengthening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Việt Nam in the socialism building process.

He agreed on enhancing high-level exchanges, deepening substantive cooperation in various fields, coordinating at multilateral forums, and satisfactorily handling maritime issues.

President Xi said that in the context of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides needed to maintain regular exchanges and contact at all levels, sectors, and localities through various channels in flexible form while accelerating strategic connection, forming new bright spots in cooperation between the two countries. VNS