China, Vietnam stress commitment to taking relations to higher level

China and Vietnam on Saturday reiterated their commitment to growing bilateral relations as Chinese Premier Li Qiang met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

During the meeting, Li said China and Vietnam are friendly socialist neighbors, jointly building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that bears strategic significance.

He added that China is ready to work with Vietnam to safeguard common strategic interests, expand trade and people-to-people exchanges and take bilateral relations and cooperation to a new level.

Both sides should manage differences through dialogue and consultation, and work together to reject power politics, said Li.

Pham Minh Chinh said China was the first country Vietnam formed a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with, the highest level in Vietnam’s international relations, and the Southeast Asian country attaches the greatest importance to such a relationship.

It is the “objective requirement, top priority and strategic choice” of Vietnam to keep deepening its relations with China, he said.

The Vietnamese side supports China’s development and is ready to deepen cooperation with China across the board to elevate bilateral relations to a new level, he said.

The meeting between the two leaders came one day before their scheduled attendance at the opening ceremony of the 20th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning.

(Cover: Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Nanning, the capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, September 16, 2023. /Xinhua)