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| Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn. — VNA/VNS Photo |
BEIJING — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn will pay a visit to China from December 8-11, during which he will co-chair the 16th meeting of the Việt Nam-China Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation, at the invitation of Politburo member, Director of the Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee’s Commission for Foreign Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi.
Granting an interview to the press ahead of the visit, Vietnamese Ambassador to China Phạm Sao Mai said that Sơn’s trip is of great significance to continuing to speed up the effective implementation of high-level common perceptions reached between the two countries, strengthen political trust, and develop the bilateral friendship and win-win cooperation in a deep and practical direction.
At the 16th meeting of the Việt Nam-China Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation, based on the orientation of “six major goals” agreed upon by both nations’ high-level leaders, the two sides will jointly review the overall collaboration efforts since the 15th meeting held in December 2023.
They will discuss major directions and specific measures to improve the quality of cooperation, and jointly remove difficulties and obstacles, and continue to step up substantive collaboration across all fields, especially economy, trade, investment, infrastructure development, culture, education, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges, Mai stated.
Regarding economic and trade cooperation results, the diplomat affirmed the bilateral ties in these fields have maintained a stable and sustainable growth momentum in recent times. Indeed, Việt Nam remains China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN and its fifth largest in the world. Meanwhile, the latter is the former’s largest trading partner, biggest import market, and second biggest export market.
In the overall results of collaboration, Việt Nam’s agricultural exports to China continue to be a bright spot. In the past 10 months of 2024, the country’s agricultural export turnover to the Chinese market reached nearly US$10 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.6 per cent.
The ambassador highlighted the huge potential for cooperation in the agricultural sector, particularly as they have the advantage of sharing a borderline, and the Chinese market’s demand for agricultural products is very large, while Việt Nam’s ability to supply high-quality agricultural products is abundant. Furthermore, the two countries have also signed many bilateral trade agreements and are both members of multilateral trade agreements.
Mai went on to say that both nations are preparing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations and the Year of Việt Nam – China Humanistic Exchange in 2025.
Over the past 75 years, the friendship that generations of leaders of the two Parties and States, and the people of the two nations have worked hard to cultivate has become a valuable common asset, contributing to maintaining the stable development trend of the traditional friendship whilst bringing practical benefits to their people.
The decision by both nations’ top leaders to designate 2025 as the “Year of Việt Nam – China Humanistic Exchange” is a testament to the fact that humanistic exchange represents one of the most fundamental and important directions in the overall bilateral relationship.
Currently, relevant agencies of the two sides are closely coordinating to organise meaningful commemorative activities and people-to-people exchanges.
The Vietnamese community in China is therefore looking forward to and stands ready to actively engage in activities in a bid to promote the beauty of the homeland and showcase its unique culture and warm-hearted people to the country and people of China.
This will contribute to deepening understanding between the people of the two countries, especially younger generations, and consolidating the social foundation for the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership towards building a joint community with a shared future that carries strategic significance, added the diplomat. — VNS
This article was first posted on Vietnam News