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Vietnam, China sign 14 agreements during top leader’s visit to Beijing
A meeting with President Xi ended with pledges to develop infrastructure, including railways.By RFA Staff
2024.08.20
Chinese President Xi Jinping walks next to Vietnam’s Party General Secretary and President To Lam as they pass by the honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Aug. 19, 2024.
Andres Martinez Casares/Pool via Reuters
Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam rounded off his three-day visit to China on Tuesday, his first foreign trip since being appointed to his country’s top job on Aug. 3.
Lam and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged in a meeting on Monday to address territorial conflicts in the South China Sea to “maintain peace and stability,” and to work together to “continue bolstering collaboration in security and defense, boosting economic, trade and investment cooperation,” the Vietnamese government said in a statement.
The two witnessed the signing of 14 cooperation agreements, including one between the Vietnam News Agency and Xinhua News Agency and a memorandum of understanding between health ministries on cooperation.
Other agreements included protocols on phytosanitary requirements for fresh coconuts and frozen durian exports from Vietnam, as well as an agreement on quarantine and health requirements for Vietnam’s exports of farmed crocodiles.
A main focus was infrastructure development, including plans for three standard-gauge cross-border rail links; the 555 kilometer (345 mile) Vientiane-Vung Ang railway, linking the Lao capital with a Vietnamese port; and the Hanoi metro, building on agreements reached during Xi’s visit to Vietnam last December 2023.
Lam asked for China’s support through “high-quality investment” in key projects, bringing together Hanoi’s “Two Corridors One Belt,” policy and China’s “Belt and Road,” initiative, to construct “major and symbolic works to match their political trust,” Vietnam said.
Xi told Lam that China was ready to “accelerate the ‘hard connectivity’ of railway, expressway and port infrastructure, enhance the ‘soft connectivity’ of smart customs, and jointly build a secure and stable industrial and supply chain,” according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A spokesperson for the Chinese ministry, Mao Ning, told a regular media briefing on Monday that rail links between China and Vietnam, launched in November 2017 opened “a new channel for China-Vietnam logistics transportation,” cutting transport time, increasing the efficiency of customs clearance, optimizing hub functions and significantly increasing the range of goods traded across the border, “becoming a fast track to promote economic and trade exchanges.”
The two leaders are likely to meet next in Hanoi after Xi accepted an invitation from Lam to visit the Vietnamese capital.