General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of China Xi Jinping conferred the Friendship Medal to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong during his official visit to China in 2022. (Photo: VOV)

This is Mr. Xi's third state visit to Vietnam as General Secretary and President of China. It’s his first foreign visit to a country after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October, 2022. The visit is of great importance to the relationship of the two Parties and two countries, affirming their top priority for consolidating Vietnam-China relations.

Development of relations

After 15 years of developing the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Vietnam-China relations have progressed in many sectors. Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo said, “Substantive cooperation between our two countries has reached its highest level in history. The highlight of our relations is not only strengthening political trust, but also economic, trade, and investment cooperation. It has great significance for bilateral relations. China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner for many years, and Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN. ASEAN is China's largest trading partner and Vietnam holds the largest market share in ASEAN."

Mutual understanding and political trust have been enhanced via high-level visits and exchanges, particularly between the two General Secretaries. The State, Government, National Assembly, and Fatherland Front leaders of both countries have met regularly and people-to-people exchanges have been held frequently.

Cooperation in economics, trade, and investment has deepened. China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner for 20 consecutive years, and Vietnam is now China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and China's 4th largest trading partner in the world, after the US, Japan, and South Korea.

Bilateral trade turnover increased 9 fold, from 20 billion USD in 2008 to nearly 180 billion USD in 2022. Over the last 15 years, Chinese investment in Vietnam increased more than 10 fold, from 2 billion USD in in 2008 to 25 billion USD today. This year China rose to fourth place among the countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Defense-security cooperation is developing in many new forms. Since General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to China, the two countries have agreed to make defense-security cooperation one of the pillars of bilateral relations. The two countries’ cooperation at international forums has been expanded, and they support each other's important initiatives.

President Xi visited Vietnam in 2015 and 2017. Dr. Nguyen Hong Hai, a Senior Lecturer at VinUniversity, said Xi’s visit will deepen bilateral relations.

“This is a very important visit for bilateral relations. It is very rare that within a year the two countries’ General Secretaries meet each other again. It shows that both countries attach great importance to the other. According to the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, during this visit, the two countries will position their relations at a higher level. I think that, with the unity and consensus of the leaders in promoting and deepening relations, the visit will meet the expectations of the two countries," Mr. Hai said.

Nguyen Vinh Quang, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam-China Friendship Association, said that Xi Jinping visiting Vietnam three times as General Secretary and President of China shows that he values the Vietnam-China relationship. The shared perceptions to be reached between senior leaders of the two countries during this visit will continue to lead bilateral relations in the future.

 “Vietnam-China relations developed strongly thanks to the guidance of important shared perceptions that senior leaders of the two countries reached during General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to China last October. The top leaders of the two Parties and States are meeting again and will certainly achieve new shared perceptions to orient and lead bilateral relations to develop more strongly," Mr. Quang said.

With important achievements during 15 years of establishing a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, the visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping is a new milestone in bilateral relations. The visit will raise Vietnam-China bilateral relations to a new level.