Besides attending the Belt and Road Forum, the Vietnamese PM is scheduled to meet with senior Chinese leaders to exchange ideas on measures to boost the development of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a stable, healthy and sustainable manner; enhance the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and investment; expand the market for Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural, forestry and fishery products, as well as maintain peace and stability in the East Sea.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s trip to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum comes at a time when the relationship between the two countries continues to maintain stable development and record new positive progresses. High-level visits and meetings are held frequently, helping to reinforce political trust between the two sides.
Cooperation and exchange mechanisms at various levels, and between the two countries’ agencies and localities, continue to be implemented effectively. Economic, trade, investment and tourism cooperation has seen steps of substantive development while people-to-people exchange is actively promoted.
Both countries’ senior leaders have emphasised that the Vietnam-China friendly relationship is a valuable asset of the two countries and their peoples, which needs to be safeguarded, inherited and developed while affirming that they will take efforts to make the bilateral relationship develop in an intensive manner. The two countries’ leaders also support each other in their respective causes of renovation, opening-up and socialist construction, in the interest of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large.
The two sides have also agreed to expand and enhance the quality of cooperation in various fields, control disagreement, and maintain the positive development trend of the bilateral relationship. During a state visit by Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping to Vietnam in November 2017, the two sides signed a government-level memorandum of understanding on promoting connectivity between Vietnam’s “Two Corridors, One Belt” initiative and China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.
It is noted with pleasure that China is currently Vietnam’s largest trading partner, largest import market and second largest export market while Vietnam is China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN. In 2018, bilateral trade reached US$106.7 billion, up 13.8% from a year earlier. China is currently the seventh largest investor in Vietnam, with a total capital of US$14.2 billion.
After more than five years of implementing the Belt and Road initiative, China has recorded significant progresses and has gradually turned this initiative into a formal cooperation framework. At the first Belt and Road Forum, high-ranking leaders of 29 countries, including Vietnam, agreed on the main principles of Belt and Road cooperation in accordance with the laws and policies of each country. Accordingly, cooperation will be based on the spirit of peace, openness, transparency, inclusiveness, equality, learning from each other, mutual benefit and respect through promoting cooperation on the basis of broad-based consultations and rule of law, striving together, sharing benefits, and equal opportunities.
The second forum takes place under the theme “Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future”. Vietnam supports China’s successful organisation of this forum to promote international cooperation and regional connectivity, for common peace, development and prosperity on the basis of the major principles and goals of the Belt and Road cooperation agreed upon by countries at the first forum. Vietnam welcomes initiatives to promote regional economic connectivity and cooperation, including the Belt and Road initiative.
The implementation of the Belt and Road initiative needs to ensure the principles of peaceful cooperation, equality, and mutual benefits, in accordance with international laws and the Charter of the United Nations, contributing to the development and prosperity of countries.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s trip to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is significant to the Vietnam-China relationship and to Vietnam’s external relations in general.
On the occasion, Vietnam affirms its consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development; multilateralisation and diversification of international relations, with the motto “Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community”, aiming to maintain a peaceful and stable environment, take advantage of external resources to develop the country and enhance the people’s standards of living; enhance the country’s position and reputation.
May Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s trip to attend the second Belt and Road Forum be a success, helping to enhance substantive cooperation in various fields, especially economic cooperation between the two countries, while promoting the time-honoured friendly neighbourliness and the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China to develop in a stable, healthy and sustainable manner, for the sake of the two countries’ peoples, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large.
