The Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, Vương Đình Huệ, made history by being the first to engage in talks with President Xi Jinping during his official visit to Beijing. Both leaders agreed to strengthen their bilateral relations to build a future community.
According to the Vietnamese local media VnExpress, on the 8th, Chairman Huệ met with President Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing that morning.
Chairman Huệ was the first leader to meet with President Xi during his official visit to China, indicating that China highly values the visit of the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation.
During the meeting, Chairman Huệ emphasized that nurturing relations with China is a strategic imperative and a paramount focus of Vietnam’s foreign policy.
He clarified that Vietnam supports the One China policy and advocated bolstering political confidence and intensifying top-level interactions, exchanges, and collaborations across pivotal domains like diplomacy, public security, and defense.
Chairman Huệ asked both parties to create new growth momentum for bilateral cooperation by enhancing strategic connectivity, particularly focusing on expanding agricultural imports and promoting trade partnerships. He also intended to connect China’s major development strategies with Vietnam, linking railways, highways, maritime, aviation, financial, currency, and digital transformation cooperation.
He expressed his desire for both sides to enhance human exchanges, promote the role of the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Chinese National People’s Congress in information and propaganda, form a social consensus, and promote cooperation in various fields. Additionally, he underscored the imperative of handling maritime issues with a spirit of constructive dispute resolution.
President Xi emphasized that the agreement between the two countries to build a future community has opened a new and open era of cooperation in six key directions: heightened political trust, enhanced defense and security collaboration, deepened economic ties, fortified societal foundations, closer multilateral coordination, and a shared dedication to regional and global peace through peaceful conflict resolution.
He affirmed that China is ready to maintain strategic exchanges with Vietnam, strengthen practical cooperation, and particularly accelerate strategic connectivity in areas such as railways and smart border gates, and strengthen cooperation in other areas such as digital economy, green energy, essential minerals, and emerging industries. He also welcomed Vietnam’s participation in China’s major regional development strategies.
President Xi welcomed the signing of a new cooperation agreement between China and the Vietnamese National Assembly, which aims to improve the level and efficiency of cooperation and actively implement it in all fields.
Chairman Huệ’s visit to China was made at the invitation of Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress of China.
This is Chairman Huệ’s first visit to China since taking office and the first visit by a high-ranking Vietnamese leader to China since the two sides announced the deepening of relations and the construction of a “future community.”
China, the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam on January 18, 1950, has been Vietnam’s largest trading partner for many years. Vietnam, in turn, stands as China’s largest ASEAN partner.
According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, bilateral trade between Vietnam and China surged to $171.9 billion in 2023. Notably, in the first two months of this year, Vietnam’s trade with China reached $27.3 billion, an increase of 28% over the same period in 2023. Vietnam’s exports to China amounted to $7.95 billion, up by 7.6%, while imports from China soared to $19.3 billion, reflecting a 38.8% increase.
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