Vietnamese President To Lam told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, today that the relationship with China is the main priority of Vietnamese foreign policy, during a meeting in Beijing.
‘As brothers, we always watch every step of China’s development and we are pleased with the achievements that the [Communist] Party, the government and the people of China have made under your leadership,’ Lam said in his speech before meeting Xi.
The two leaders signed 14 co-operation agreements in areas such as political education, infrastructure, healthcare and banking.
Lam’s three-day visit to China comes about two weeks after his confirmation as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country’s most important political post. He succeeds Nguyen Phu Trong, who died last month after 13 years as leader.
China and Vietnam share a border of almost 1,300 kilometers and strong economic ties, with bilateral trade expected to reach 175.6 billion dollars (159 billion euros) by 2022.
Lam said that Vietnam supports China’s claim over Taiwan, known as the ‘One China’ principle, and that any issues concerning Hong Kong and the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang are China’s internal affairs.
Lam is expected to maintain ‘bamboo diplomacy’, characterized by flexibility and a refusal to align with a specific bloc.
Vietnam’s diplomatic neutrality, aimed at maximising its own interests, has reached new heights, with Hanoi having hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in less than a year.
The US and its ally Japan have been forging closer ties with the communist government of Vietnam – Washington’s former enemy during the Vietnam War – as they seek partners in a growing economic and strategic rivalry with China.
When Xi visited Vietnam last December, the two countries announced that they would build ‘a shared future with strategic significance’. The agreement, which the Chinese state press described as an upgrade in ties, was seen as a concession by Vietnam, which had resisted using that expression in the past.
Vladimir Putin met Lam in Vietnam in June, after visiting North Korea, in a rare foreign trip for the Russian leader, who has been ostracised by many countries for invading Ukraine in 2022.
Lam began his trip to China on Sunday in Guangzhou, an important production and export centre near Hong Kong.He also visited sites in the southern city where Vietnam’s former communist leader Ho Chi Minh spent time in the 1920s and 1930s.Although both are one-party communist states, Vietnam and China have repeatedly clashed over territory they both claim in the South China Sea. China also briefly invaded parts of northern Vietnam in 1979.
Recently, a Vietnamese coastguard ship took part in joint exercises in the Philippines, a country that has had a series of violent confrontations with China over disputed territory in the South China Sea.But Vietnam has benefited economically from investment by Chinese manufacturers, who have transferred production to the Southeast Asian country, partly to get round US restrictions on solar panels and other exports from China.
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