(VOVworld) - Vietnam and China issued a Joint Communiqué on the occasion of the official visit to China by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong from January 12-15 at the invitation of Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping received Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (Photo: VNA)

The Joint Communiqué said that Vietnam and China will consistently pursue the motto “friendly neighbors, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability and looking towards the future” and uphold the spirit of “good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners”. The two countries will always develop the bilateral relations on the basis of strategic and long-term vision, and follow the major orientation of the Vietnam-China relationship. It added that the two countries will maintain mutual respect, promote strategic exchange, enhance political trust, properly solve differences, deepen win-win cooperation, continually foster the stable, healthy development of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, in order to bring greater benefits for both countries and peoples while contributing more to promoting peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and the world.

The two sides agreed to maintain and strengthen Vietnam-China high-level exchanges through various forms including bilateral visits, special envoys, hotlines, annual meetings and meetings on the sidelines of multilateral forums, thus timely exchanging viewpoints on important issues in the relationship between the two Parties and countries as well as on regional and international situations, and defining orientations and directing the Vietnam-China ties’ growth in the new period.
They held that both Vietnam and China have entered an important period of socio-economic development, thus it is necessary to optimize the overall coordinating role of exchange and cooperation mechanisms, such as high-level meetings between the two Parties and the Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation.
The two sides should effectively implement cooperation plan in diplomatic, defense, security and law enforcement, trade, people to people exchanges, the Vietnam-China Joint Committee on Land Border and the Committee on Vietnam-China Land Border Gate Management.

The two sides have candid and sincere discussion on sea-related issues. They underlined the need to observe the common perceptions reached by leaders of the two Parties and countries, and the “agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea issues between Vietnam and China”. 
The two sides should make the best use of the governmental-level negotiating mechanism on border and territory and pursue negotiations and friendly consultations to seek fundamental and long lasting solutions acceptable to both sides.
Both sides agreed to continue to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), work towards the early formation of a Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC) on the basis of consensus consultation, effectively controlling disputes at sea and avoiding actions that would further complicate or expanding disputes, while maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea. 

They agreed to boost coordination and cooperation at multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the ASEAN-China, Mekong – Lan Cang, thus working together in maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.