Hanoi: National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue will lead a high-level Vietnamese delegation to pay an official visit to China from April 7-12 at the invitation of Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China Zhao Leji.
On this occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo granted the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) an interview on contents related to the visit.
Reporter: NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue will visit China in the coming days. Could you please say about the meanings of the visit to the relationship between the two countries?
Ambassador Xiong Bo: This will be the first official visit that Vietnamese NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue pays to China as the leader of the Vietnamese NA. China attaches great importance to and warmly welcomes this visit.
The visit is an important interaction between high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and two countries with an aim to maintain and strengthen strategic exchanges, with the most important task being to accelerate the imp
lementation of a series of important common perceptions reached between the top leaders of the two Parties, especially the important common understandings reached during the visit to Vietnam by General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of China Xi Jinping last year. During the visit, Xi and the Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong reached a series of new important common perceptions, of which the most important is to maintain the high-level exchanges between the two Parties. The upcoming China visit by NA Chairman Hue is also a specific action to maintain the high-level bilateral exchanges.
At the same time, this will be the first visit to China by a high-ranking leader of Vietnam after the two countries announced the building of a Vietnam-China Community with a Shared Future which has a strategic significance, striving for the happiness of the peoples of the two sides as well as for the sake of peace and progress of the humanity.
Besides, this will be the first meeting
between the highest leaders of Vietnamese and Chinese legislatures after the announcement of the Vietnam-China Community with a Shared Future. This has a very important significance in promoting cooperation between the two countries across all fields as well as the increase of experience exchanges between the two sides in Party building and national management, the enhancement of key cooperation in many areas, and the deepening of exchanges between the two legislative bodies.
During this visit, the two sides are scheduled to sign a new cooperation agreement between the two countries’ legislatures and establish their new high-level dialogue mechanism.
In general, this visit is very significant and we expect that it will produce good results.
Reporter: According to you, how have the cooperative relations between the Vietnamese NA and the Chinese NPC contributed to the overall development of the ties between the two countries over the recent past?
Ambassador Xiong Bo: Exchanges between the two countries’ leg
islative bodies are an important component in the relationship between the two Parties and the two countries. In the process of developing bilateral relations, the two countries’ legislative bodies have maintained close exchanges.
In March last year, after the election of the Standing Committee of the 14th NPC of China, Chairman of the committee Zhao Leji had his first online meeting with NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue in the position of Chairman of the NPC of China. This official visit to China by NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue will also be a continuation of the close exchanges between the two countries’ legislatures.
Reporter: How do you assess the opportunities and challenges of the bilateral relations in the coming time?
Ambassador Xiong Bo: First of all, like any bilateral relationship, both opportunities and challenges exist in the China-Vietnam relationship. There cannot be only opportunities without challenges. I think the most outstanding feature of China-Vietnam relations is that opportunities outweigh c
hallenges by far and, through the efforts of both sides, some challenges can be effectively managed and transformed into opportunities of cooperation under certain conditions.
Talking about opportunities, the biggest opportunity or the most basic advantage of China-Vietnam relations is that both sides persistently implement the strategic directions of the top leaders of the two Parties and the political guidance in the relationship between the two Parties over the relationship between the two countries.
Both sides attach importance to maintaining political security, which means ensuring the leadership of the Party and the safety of the socialist regime as their fundamental strategic interests. The two sides attach great importance to enhancing the exchange of experience in Party building, State management and national construction, assisting each other’s major political agendas, and supporting the implementation of medium- and long-term goals.
In addition, the traditional friendship of China and Vietnam, b
uilt and nurtured by generations of veteran leaders of the two Parties, including Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh and Chinese President Mao Zedong, becomes a valuable asset of the two sides, contributing to helping the two countries continuously strengthen cooperation, and a strong spiritual strength for us to jointly accelerate the cause of development.
China and Vietnam are extremely important economic and trade partners of each other. China was Vietnam’s largest trade partner, while Vietnam was the fifth biggest trade partner of China last year. The two sides have close economic, trade, and investment links. They boast a geographical advantage, their mountains and rivers are interconnected, convenient transportation, similar cultures, and close people-to-people exchanges. These factors are all huge opportunities for developing the China-Vietnam relationship. However, cooperation in many fields between the two sides has yet to match the favourable conditions and huge cooperation potential between the two
countries.
During the visit to Vietnam by Party General Secretary Xi Jinping last year, high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and the two countries achieved the goal of “better management and control of differences’. In a high-level visit, reaching such a common perception is extremely rare. This demonstrates the will, determination, and confidence of China and Vietnam in candidly acknowledging and solving differences in a reasonable manner.
Reporter: Trade cooperation and investment has always been a crucial driver to promote relations between the two countries. How do you assess the achievements and progress of the practical cooperation between the two nations?
Ambassador Xiong Bo: Economic cooperation, trade and investment between the two countries always maintains strong momentum of development. Amidst the complex fluctuations and challenges in the world, sustaining this development momentum is by no means simple. Last year, amid a complicated external environment, the economic development of both Ch
ina and Vietnam faced numerous challenges, but they managed to maintain a growth rate of over 5%, which is a noteworthy achievement.
Meanwhile, bilateral trade did not experience a excessive decline. According to China’ statistics, the two-way trade hit 229.8 billion USD, with Vietnam’s exports to China increasing by 4.8%. I want to emphasise that although Vietnam’s agricultural exports to China, especially fruits and vegetables, may not account for a large proportion, they hold a significant importance in bilateral trade and are highly valued by Vietnamese leaders. China also attaches great importance to increasing agricultural imports from Vietnam. Last year, Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable export to China surged by 139.5%, accounting for 65% of Vietnam’s total export turnover of fruits and vegetables. In this, durian exports reached nearly 500,000 tonnes worth 2.1 billion USD. We believe that Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports to China will continue to maintain this strong growth momentum this year. The
export situation in the first quarter of this year was very favourable.
China’s investment in Vietnam has also maintained rapid growth. Last year, China poured 4.47 billion USD of investment into Vietnam, up 77.6% year-on-year, making it the fourth biggest foreign investor in Vietnam.
During the visit to Vietnam by Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping last year, the two sides achieved important common perceptions regarding strengthening practical cooperation, with top priority given to accelerating transportation infrastructure connectivity.
Also during his Vietnam visit, General Secretary and President Xi Jinping emphasised that China firmly supports Vietnam in speeding up industrialisation and modernisation, and is willing to actively participate in the process of transforming and upgrading Vietnam’s economy, especially in terms of energy transition. Leaders of many large energy and power generation companies of China have come to Vietnam to make market surveys. Accelerating a shift
and upgrade of energy holds significant importance for the sustainable development of Vietnam’s economy, promoting industrialisation, and realising the goal of net-zero emissions. Chinese enterprises can provide strong support to Vietnam in such areas as policy consultation, technical services for energy transition and power development, as well as the development of wind and solar energy, energy storage, hydro energy, and other new energy sources.
Source: Vietnam News Agency