General Secretary, President To Lam's visit to China: A milestone opening a new development phase
WVR - According to Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu, the state visit to China by General Secretary, President To Lam and his spouse marks a new beginning in bilateral relations as both countries enter a new phase of development.
Latest
From April 14-17, at the invitation of General Secretary, President of China Xi Jinping and his spouse, General Secretary, President To Lam and his spouse, along with a high-level Vietnamese delegation, will make a state visit to China.
On this occasion, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu gave an interview to the press about the significance and expectations of the visit.
 |
| General Secretary, President To Lam and his spouse Ngo Phuong Ly. (Source: VNA) |
Deputy Minister, could you elaborate on the significance of General Secretary, President To Lam's state visit to China from April 14 - 17, 2026?
At the invitation of General Secretary, President of China Xi Jinping and his spouse, General Secretary, President To Lam and his spouse, along with a high-level Vietnamese delegation, will make a state visit to China from April 14 - 17, 2026.
This is the first state visit by General Secretary, President To Lam in his capacity as the highest leader of the Party and the State, occurring exactly one year after the state visit to Vietnam by General Secretary, President Xi Jinping (from April 14 - 15, 2025), and marks the third bilateral visit within less than two years by the top leaders of the two Parties and countries.
This visit holds three very special significances:
Firstly, the visit marks a new beginning in bilateral relations as both countries enter a new phase of development: Vietnam embarks on a new era of development following the successful conclusion of the 14th National Party Congress, while China begins implementing its 15th Five-Year Economic and Social Development Plan.
The early organization of the visit by both sides demonstrates their utmost importance and strong determination to develop the relationship of “comrades and brothers” in a more sustainable, stable, and substantive manner in the future.
Secondly, the visit is a crucial opportunity to elevate strategic connectivity and establish a new height for the relationship between the two Parties and countries. The top leaders of the two Parties and countries will jointly identify new orientations and breakthroughs in economic-trade cooperation, investment and tourism, supply chain and production chain cooperation, education and training, science and technology, striving together to realize the development goals and aspirations of each country.
Thirdly, the visit will contribute to enhancing political trust, promoting solutions to resolve some remaining differences and obstacles, increasing people-to-people exchanges and local cooperation, thereby contributing to making the bilateral relationship more stable and sustainable, and positively contributing to peace, stability, and cooperation in the region and the world.
It is evident that the increasingly stable, effective, and substantive relationship between the two countries will significantly contribute to realizing the growth and development goals of both Vietnam and China in the new era, maintaining stability, security, cooperation, and development amidst the current unstable and uncertain global and regional situation.
Therefore, this visit is expected to be of special significance, creating a mark, and generating new momentum for bilateral relations.
 |
| Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu giving an interview to the press. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Deputy Minister, how do you assess the outstanding achievements in Vietnam-China relations in recent times?
Vietnam-China relations have maintained a positive development momentum, with many clear and relatively comprehensive advancements following the “6 more” orientation. Some notable highlights include:
Firstly, political trust between the two sides has been consolidated and strengthened, continuing to play a strategic guiding role, leading bilateral relations to develop across various fields. High-level leaders of the two Parties and countries maintain regular exchanges and contacts in many flexible forms. Notably, the two state visits by General Secretary, President To Lam (August 2024) and General Secretary, President Xi Jinping (April 2025) occurred within less than a year.
Most recently, right after Vietnam successfully organized the 14th National Party Congress, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping took numerous measures to congratulate the Congress; General Secretary Xi Jinping promptly held a phone call with General Secretary To Lam (January 26) immediately after the Congress concluded. The two General Secretaries also sent Special Envoys to visit each other to congratulate/inform about the results of the 14th National Party Congress.
High-level and various-level delegation exchanges are vibrant. Exchange and cooperation mechanisms are increasingly comprehensive and rich, reflecting high trust and a proactive, positive spirit in promoting political cooperation between the two countries.
Notably, the two sides successfully organized the first meeting of the Cooperation Committee between the National Assembly of Vietnam and the National People's Congress of China. Cooperation mechanisms between the two Parties, National Assemblies, Fatherland Fronts, ministries, sectors, and localities are increasingly strengthened and regularly maintained.
 |
| General Secretary, President To Lam and his spouse Ngo Phuong Ly posing with General Secretary, President of China Xi Jinping and his spouse Peng Liyuan, on August 19, 2024, in Beijing. (Source: Xinhua) |
Secondly, cooperation in diplomacy, defense-security has many substantive marks and transformations. Notably, the two sides recently successfully organized the first session of the 3 3 Strategic Dialogue at the Ministerial level of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Public Security within the framework of the 17th session of the Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation Steering Committee.
On this occasion, each agency between the two sides conducted corresponding cooperation activities such as Strategic Exchange between the two Foreign Ministers, the 10th Border Defense Friendship Exchange, and the 9th Ministerial Conference on Crime Prevention Cooperation.
Regular cooperation activities between the two sides are enhanced, such as organizing the 40th joint naval patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin (March 2026), conducting joint Army training in China (July 2025); law enforcement and judicial cooperation continue to be strengthened, particularly in combating transnational crime, smuggling, trade fraud, and border management, thereby laying a solid foundation for increasingly substantive, stable, and sustainable defense-security cooperation.
Thirdly, substantive cooperation in various fields, especially in economic-trade, investment, maintains strong development momentum, becoming a highlight in bilateral relations. Vietnam has consistently been China's largest trading partner in ASEAN for 10 consecutive years and has been China's fourth-largest trading partner globally for two consecutive years (2024, 2025). China has long been Vietnam's largest trading partner.
In 2025, the trade turnover between Vietnam and China reached USD 256.4 billion, an increase of 24.8% compared to the previous year. The trade structure continues to improve, with many Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products expanding their market share in China. Investment cooperation has shifted from quantity expansion to quality enhancement, with China currently ranking second in total registered capital at USD 5.96 billion (after Singapore), a 33.4% increase from the previous year, with more high-tech projects in electronics and new energy vehicles emerging.
Strategic connectivity, especially in transport and logistics infrastructure, has made significant positive progress. The two sides are promoting the connection of standard gauge railways, upgrading economic corridor routes, and piloting the implementation of smart border gate models, contributing to improving clearance efficiency, reducing logistics costs, and enhancing regional supply chain connectivity.
Fourthly, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation in education, culture, tourism, and local cooperation are vibrant. In 2025, Vietnam welcomed 5.28 million Chinese tourists, a 41.3% increase from the previous year, ranking first in total international visitors to Vietnam.
The number of Vietnamese students in China reached a record level, nearly 24,000 (double compared to 2019). Friendship organizations and mass organizations of both sides actively carry out exchange and meeting activities.
Cooperation and exchange activities between localities of the two countries are vibrant, contributing to further consolidating the social foundation between the two sides, while enhancing understanding and strengthening the neighborly friendship between the people of the two countries' localities, especially the younger generation.
Fifthly, the two sides also maintain good coordination and cooperation in multilateral mechanisms; share views on supporting multilateralism with the United Nations at its center and international law as its foundation, supporting each other's important development initiatives, and supporting each other to play a positive role in multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations, ASEAN, Mekong-Lancang, contributing to maintaining peace and stability in the region and the world.
Sixthly, border and territorial issues, the overall border situation on land remains stable, and exchange, negotiation, and cooperation mechanisms between the two sides on maritime issues are regularly maintained, emphasizing the importance of controlling and appropriately handling disagreements, contributing to maintaining a peaceful, stable, and developmental environment in the region.
To achieve such comprehensive and substantive results in Vietnam-China relations, the most important factor is the trust and mutual understanding between the high-level leaders of the two Parties and countries; the joint efforts, decisive involvement, strong support, and persistent efforts of the ministries, sectors, localities, business communities, and people of both countries.
The achievements made in recent times not only deepen the relationship between the two Parties and countries but also play an important role in regional stability and development. This is a solid foundation for both sides to continue developing bilateral relations in a stable, healthy, sustainable, and long-term direction in the future, and it is also an important premise to open up breakthroughs, bringing the relationship between the two countries into a new phase of development at a higher level, with new momentum and cooperation space during General Secretary, President To Lam's state visit to China.
Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!
