This the first working visit to China by President Vo Van Thuong following the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2021 and the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022.
As one of the top foreign policy initiatives introduced by Chinese General Secretary and President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is highly valued by China and implemented synchronously and comprehensively. Today after ten years of implementing the BRI, China has achieved important results with broad international support.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, as of 2022, China signed 206 cooperation agreements with 151 countries and 32 international organisations within the BRI framework; and implemented about 3,000 projects in various fields with total capital of nearly one trillion USD. China is now making important adjustments to ensure the BRI can continue to grow.
Vietnam-China relations have maintained stable development and positive progress, especially following General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s official visit to China in 2022. In 2023, in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, delegation exchanges at all levels have been carried out actively. The two countries maintain flexible exchanges and meetings on both the Party and State channels, as well as people-to-people exchange.
Economics, trade, and investment cooperation continue to witness substantive development. Two-way trade reached 175.56 billion USD in 2022 and 89.1 billion USD in the first seven months of 2023. China is currently the sixth largest foreign investor in Vietnam with 25.8 billion USD across 3,949 projects. In the first eight months of 2023, Vietnam welcomed more than 900,000 Chinese tourists, making China the second largest source of foreign visitors to Vietnam.
Vietnam and China signed a government-level memorandum of understanding (MoU) on promoting connection between the Two Corridors, One Belt framework and the BRI in November 2017. The two sides are working to finalise a cooperation plan to promote the implementation of the MoU.
The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held on the 10th anniversary of the BRI under the theme “High-quality Belt and Road Cooperation: Together for Common Development and Prosperity” is one of the most important diplomatic events hosted by China in 2023.
President Vo Van Thuong’s working trip to China is the third time that a senior Vietnamese leader has attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held by China. This activity is a follow-up to the regular exchanges and meetings between the senior leaders of the two Parties and two countries in recent times. It is an opportunity for the leaders to continue discussing in-depth the measures to concretise the high-level common perceptions between the two countries, especially during the recent official visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Taking place in the year marking the 15th anniversary of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, President Vo Van Thuong’s working trip demonstrates the importance and top priority given by the Vietnamese Party and State to developing the ties with China. The trip also reflects the two countries’ effort to consolidate the friendly neighbourliness tradition, advance Vietnam-China relations to continue growing in a stable and healthy manner, with high political trust and substantive cooperation.
Amid the complicated international and regional situations, Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong’s attendance at the forum is a substantive activity in implementing Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, cooperation and development; multilateralisation and diversification of foreign relations; and active, proactive, and comprehensive international integration.
President Vo Van Thuong’s multilateral foreign activity continues to convey the message of Vietnam as a friend, reliable partner and responsible member of the international community, contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
