Vietnam-China Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation holds 17th meeting in Hanoi
WVR - On the morning of March 17, at the Government Headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son and Member of the Politburo, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the 17th Meeting of the Vietnam-China Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation.
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| Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son welcomes Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
In a sincere, friendly, open, and substantive atmosphere, both sides expressed their pleasure at the positive development of cooperative relations between the two Parties and countries, Vietnam and China, since the 16th Meeting, on December 2024. They delved into discussions and reached consensus on various measures to continue effectively implementing the common understandings between senior leaders, striving to elevate bilateral relations to a new, more effective, and substantive phase of development.
Expressing congratulations on each country's development achievements and emphasizing the importance and priority of bilateral relations in each country's foreign policy, both sides agreed that Vietnam-China relations have achieved positive results recently. Highlights include strategic exchanges and close high-level contacts, increasingly complete cooperation mechanisms; strengthened cooperation between the Parties, National Assemblies, Fatherland Front/Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and ministries; robust growth in economic, trade, investment, and tourism cooperation, with China remaining Vietnam's largest trading partner and Vietnam being China's fourth-largest trading partner with many high-value agricultural products; strategic connectivity, particularly in railways, showing significant progress; vibrant local cooperation and people-to-people exchanges; and closer multilateral cooperation.
Both sides also candidly pointed out some existing issues in cooperation that require joint efforts to further promote and match the potential and strengths of both sides.
Regarding the focus of future cooperation, both sides agreed to continue consolidating strategic trust, enhancing high-level and various levels of contact; effectively coordinating the overall role of the Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation; improving the effectiveness of substantive cooperation across fields; expanding local cooperation and people-to-people exchanges; and strengthening coordination at multilateral forums.
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| Overview of the 17th Meeting of the Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation Steering Committee. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son proposed that both sides promote the establishment of intergovernmental working groups in key areas; prioritize railway cooperation, swiftly complete three standard gauge railway projects connecting the two countries, along with providing Vietnam with preferential loans, technology transfer, and railway workforce training; facilitate Vietnam in opening more trade promotion offices in China; continue to open the market for Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products such as exploited seafood and pomelos, promptly re-import Vietnamese lobsters, and enhance cooperation on standards.
The Deputy Prime Minister also expressed the desire for both sides to promote high-quality, high-tech Chinese investment in Vietnam, expedite the resolution of issues in some aid projects; enhance energy infrastructure, border gates, including increasing the capacity and volume of electricity imports from China, ensuring fuel supply, expanding the smart border gate model, and implementing cross-border economic cooperation zones.
The Deputy Prime Minister called for boosting cooperation in agriculture, environment, finance and banking, science and technology, healthcare, and people-to-people exchanges, especially in identifying and implementing activities for the Vietnam-China Tourism Cooperation Year 2026-2027, and increasing the number of scholarships for Vietnamese students in China.
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| Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son speaks at the event. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Agreeing with Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son's cooperation proposals, Minister Wang Yi affirmed that China values promoting mutually beneficial cooperation with Vietnam, is ready to share development opportunities, and supports Vietnam in building an independent and self-reliant economy; is willing to expand imports of high-quality goods, especially agricultural products, and promote balanced trade.
Minister Wang Yi confirmed that China will actively promote the progress of implementing three railway lines and cooperate on capital, technology, and railway workforce training; encourage Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Vietnam. Minister Wang Yi also suggested that both sides enhance cooperation in emerging fields such as high technology, innovation, and clean energy; and expressed a desire for both sides to promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural, healthcare, and educational cooperation, affirming that China will provide more scholarships for Vietnamese students in various diverse forms.
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| Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at the Session. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
During the meeting, the two sides straightforwardly discussed sea-related issues, agreeing to continue to seriously implement the high-level common perceptions, better control and resolve differences, and maintain peace and stability in the East Sea.
Deputy Prime Minister Son asked the two sides put themselves in each other's shoes; respect each other's sovereignty and legitimate interests in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and continue to promote the role of sea-related negotiation mechanisms while accelerating negotiations to soon achieve an efficient and substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
