Vietnam, China seek to bolster bilateral ties

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son held talks with Chinese Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on December 2 in Hu Zhou city of China’s Zhejiang province, during which they sought measures to bolster the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic partnership in the future and discussed a number of regional and international issues of shared concern.

An overview of the talks (Photo: VNA)

Both sides shared delight at the progress of the bilateral partnership in this year despite COVID-19 impacts, with regular meetings between leaders of the two Parties and States as well as ministries, sectors and localities.

In the first 10 months of 2021, two-way trade rose 30 percent year on year to 133.65 billion USD , higher than the result recorded in the whole year of 2020, they noted.

They agreed to increase high-level exchanges, optimising exchange and cooperation mechanisms through the channels of Party and steering committee on bilateral collaboration, and strengthening comprehensive and effective coordination among ministries, sectors, localities and people, and beefing up partnership in economy, trade and other promising areas.

The two sides discussed measures to enhance coordination in COVID-19 prevention and control in order to maintain trade and economic exchange activities.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (R) and Chinese Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (Photo: VNA)

FM Son said he hopes the two sides will strengthen cooperation in the pandemic fight, especially in vaccine and treatment. He proposed China open its door more widely to Vietnamese fruits.

He announced a 20 million CNY (3.13 million USD) assistance for Vietnam to purchase medical equipment and 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for Vietnamese localities. He pledged that China will increase the import of Vietnamese products.

Both sides exchanged views on issues related to border and territory, and agreed to strictly implement three related legal documents and coordinate closely in managing the shared land border and dealing with arising problems in a timely manner, thus building a shared borderline of peace, cooperation and development together.

They concurred to continue to strictly abide by the joint perceptions reached by high-ranking leaders of both sides as well as the agreement on major principles guiding the settlement of maritime issues, well control disputes at sea, and maintain peace and security in the East Sea.

They vowed to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and actively speed up negotiations for an effective and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982./.

VNA