Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday exchanged greetings with Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, vowing to lift comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level.

In Xi's congratulatory message to Trong, he noted that the two countries are socialist neighbors sharing borders and a community of shared future with strategic significance. He said that bilateral ties have made great progress in the past 70 years.

The Chinese president said during their two-time historical exchange of visits, the two leaders have reached important consensus on consolidating good neighborly friendship, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation under the new situation and jointly ushering in a new era of ties between the two parties and the two countries.

The world is undergoing greatest changes in the century, Xi pointed out, adding that Sino-Vietnamese relationship has also come to a historical juncture that links the past and the future.

"I attach great importance to promoting the China-Vietnam relations," Xi said, voicing his willingness to work with President Nguyen Phu Trong to firmly steer bilateral ties in the right direction and lift the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era to new heights.

In his congratulatory message, Nguyen Phu Trong highlighted the close ties between the two nations, as well as the great and valuable support for each other, which contributes to the success of the national liberation and socialism building in each country.

He added that developing relations with China has long been a priority of Vietnam's foreign policy.

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday also exchanged greetings with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Li said China is willing to better align the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan and explore new patterns of mutual benefits and win-win results.

The Vietnamese prime minister said that Vietnam is willing to work with China to implement the high-level consensus, continuously improve the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation in various fields and promote the sustained, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.

China and Vietnam established diplomatic ties on January 18, 1950. The bilateral trade volume in 2018 was 147.86 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 21.2 percent from the previous year.