At the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping and his spouse, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam To Lam, together with his spouse and a high-level Vietnamese delegation, are paying a state visit to China from April 14 to 17, 2026.

This is the first overseas visit by General Secretary and President To Lam following Viet Nam’s consolidation of state leadership positions at the first session of the 16th National Assembly. The visit signifies a robust implementation of the consistent foreign policy of the 14th National Party Congress and the Politburo’s Resolution No. 34-NQ/TW on independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification of foreign relations - in which advancing ties with China remains the top priority, alongside accompanying China on the path to socialism, forging deeper strategic bonds for mutual and sustainable development.

The visit holds particular importance in reinforcing ties between the two parties and the two nations in the current context, elevating the bilateral relationship, the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, and the Viet Nam–China Community with a shared future of strategic significance into a new stage of development that is increasingly stable and sustainable.

The common understandings reached by the senior leaders of the two countries during this visit will provide profound strategic guidance for the development of relations between the two parties and two countries in the period ahead.

As two close neighbours connected by mountains and rivers, Viet Nam and China share a common understanding that the stable development of bilateral relations serves the fundamental and long-term interests of the peoples of both countries. Under the leadership of the two communist parties, the peoples of Viet Nam and China have extended precious affection and wholehearted, meaningful support to one another, contributing to the glorious victories of each country’s struggle for national liberation and its cause of national construction and development.

In recent years, Viet Nam–China relations have maintained strong positive momentum, with new, clear, and comprehensive progress and many bright spots in cooperation. In 2025, as the two countries marked the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations, high-level strategic exchanges were stepped up, and visits between key leaders took place with unprecedented frequency. Since the beginning of 2026, the two sides have continued their high-level exchanges and contacts through a variety of flexible formats.

China has clearly demonstrated at the highest level the importance it attaches to relations with Viet Nam, regarding Viet Nam as a priority direction in its neighbourhood diplomacy. The two sides have recently successfully held the first ministerial-level 3+3 strategic dialogue between the foreign affairs, defence, and public security ministries, marking a new stage in strategic trust and coordination between the two countries.

Political trust between the two countries has continued to grow, with numerous new cooperation mechanisms established, consolidated and upgraded, thus forming a solid framework for bilateral relations. Notably, the two sides convened the first meeting of the Joint Committee between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) in August 2025. The meeting was co-chaired by the Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee. This is the highest-level inter-parliamentary cooperation mechanism China has with any other country.

With political trust steadily deepening, bilateral cooperation has grown increasingly broad and effective, producing substantive results across multiple fields. Cooperation in trade, investment and tourism has delivered generally positive outcomes. In 2025, China was Viet Nam’s largest trading partner, while Viet Nam was China’s largest trading partner within ASEAN and its fourth-largest trading partner globally, with total bilateral trade reaching 256.4 billion USD.

In terms of tourism, Viet Nam welcomed 5.28 million Chinese visitors in 2025, up 41.3% year on year, accounting for one-quarter of all international arrivals and topping the list of source markets. In the first two months of 2026, Viet Nam received more than 922,000 Chinese visitors, around 19.7% of total international arrivals, placing second among source markets.

Local-level cooperation and people-to-people exchanges have been vibrant, especially the cooperation between border localities of both sides, which has developed favourably. The meeting between the party secretaries of six provinces/regions and cities between Guangxi and Viet Nam on February 11, 2026, achieved many concrete results, creating momentum to further promote increasingly comprehensive and in-depth cooperation between the two sides.

Cooperation between the two countries in areas such as culture, education, healthcare, and sports has also achieved many concrete results. The Viet Nam - China Humanitarian Exchange Year 2025 was implemented in a vibrant manner, notably the activity “Red Journey for Youth Study and Research”, contributing to strengthening a more solid social foundation for bilateral relations.

Defence and security cooperation has shifted towards greater substance. Cooperation in tourism and infrastructure connectivity has grown strongly, with many new breakthroughs, especially in railway connectivity. Multilateral coordination has become increasingly close. Maritime differences have generally been kept under control.