What to expect from Vietnam's top leader To Lam's state visit to China

To Lam, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and Vietnamese president, arrived in south China's Guangzhou City on Sunday morning for a three-day state visit to China.

China is the first country Lam visited after being elected as general secretary of the CPV Central Committee on August 3. He has been serving as the president of Vietnam since May 2024.

During the visit, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, will hold talks with Lam.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, top legislator Zhao Leji, and top political advisor Wang Huning will also have separate meetings with him.

That China is the first country Lam visited after taking his new role fully demonstrates the great importance Vietnam's top leader attaches to the relations between the two parties and the two countries, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

China looks forward to carrying forward traditional friendship, deepening the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future and working with Vietnam to achieve success on the two sides' respective socialist paths toward modernization with distinctive characteristics, jointly advance the global socialist cause, and contribute to regional and global peace, stability and development, the spokesperson said.

China-Vietnam community with a shared future

Xi paid a historic state visit to Vietnam in December 2023, when the two sides announced the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.

During a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in June, Xi said the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance is in line with the modernization needs of the two countries and is conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability and promoting the development of the global socialist cause.

Over the past half a year, the two parties and the two countries have enjoyed close exchanges among high-ranking officials and smooth cooperation in various fields, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, Xi told Chinh.

Noting that the world today is going through changes unseen in a century, Xi said both China and Vietnam have maintained rapid economic development and long-term social stability, demonstrating the strengths of the socialist system.

China is ready to work with Vietnam to focus on the six major goals of greater political mutual trust, more substantive security cooperation, deeper practical cooperation, more solid popular foundation, closer multilateral coordination and collaboration, and more proper management of differences, he said.

Xi added that China also stands ready to join hands with Vietnam to march toward modernization and make greater contributions to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.

Belt and Road cooperation

During the June meeting, Xi also called on China and Vietnam to maintain high-level exchanges, jointly promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, enhance connectivity and promote the high-quality development of practical cooperation between the two countries.

China is willing to encourage more Chinese enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam and hopes that Vietnam can provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises, Xi said.

China has remained Vietnam's top trading partner for many years, and Vietnam is China's top trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China's fourth largest trading partner globally, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in November 2023.

Bilateral trade between Vietnam and China saw strong performance in the first half of the year, registering $95 billion in volume, said the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam last month, citing the Vietnam News Agency.

If this trend is maintained in the second half of the year, bilateral trade between the two countries could reach $200 billion for the whole year, said the embassy.

China-Vietnam freight trains have been playing an increasingly important role in bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The rail service is now available from central China's transport hub Zhengzhou, southwest China's Chongqing and Chengdu cities, and Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In the first seven months of 2024, for instance, a total of 6,850 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods were shipped on China-Vietnam freight trains departing from Guangxi, marking a 16-fold increase year on year, according to China Railway Nanning Group.

'A new milestone'

In a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son expressed hope that Lam's state visit to China will bring new progress in practical bilateral cooperation, especially in railroad connectivity, trade in agricultural products, high-quality investment, currency and finance, culture and tourism and people-to-people exchanges.

Calling it a particularly important diplomatic event for Vietnam-China relations this year, Son said the visit will have a far-reaching effect on the future development of relations between the two parties and the two countries.

He said the fact that Lam accepted Xi's invitation and chose China as the destination for his first visit as general secretary of the CPV Central Committee shows the high importance and top priority the two sides have taken in building a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.

The visit will be a complete success, become a new milestone and open up a new chapter in the two side's good-neighborliness and friendship, comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and the building of a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance, said the Vietnamese foreign minister.