Vietnamese Communist Party chief To Lam arrived in Beijing on Sunday afternoon on his first overseas trip as his country’s leader, pointing to China’s continued importance in Hanoi even as Vietnam strengthens ties with the United States.
Lam, who is also Vietnamese president, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the three-day trip, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Lam was confirmed as party general secretary, the country’s top political position, two weeks ago. He succeeded Nguyen Phu Trong, who died last month after 13 years as leader.
Before heading to Beijing, Lam stopped in Guangzhou on Sunday morning, retracing the “red footsteps” of former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, according to the CCTV report.
Ho established his Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Guangzhou in 1925, the Marxist organisation is widely seen as a pioneer of the Vietnamese communist movement.
Lam said he looked back at “the friendly exchanges between the older generation of leaders of Vietnam and China”.
He also said Vietnam highly valued the “traditional friendship between the two brother countries and always regards the development of relations with China as a top priority”.
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Xi Jinping says Vietnam is a ‘diplomatic priority’ as Chinese leader seeks closer bilateral ties
Xi Jinping says Vietnam is a ‘diplomatic priority’ as Chinese leader seeks closer bilateral ties
Vietnam’s economy is highly dependent on China, its biggest trading partner.
Last year trade between the two countries amounted to US$171.9 billion, according to state-owned Vietnam News Agency. Chinese customs data put the volume at US$229.8 billion.
However, like most other Southeast Asian countries, bilateral trade is heavily one-way, with Vietnamese exports to China amounting to roughly half of its imports from the country.
Vietnam hopes to improve the flow of goods and people between the two countries with a high-speed rail project connecting China with Hanoi, and another one connecting China with Haiphong and Quang Ninh, two port cities in the north that are close to China.
But tensions remain over their overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
Both countries claim the Paracel and Spratly islands and Hanoi has become more vocal about the disputes, drawing closer to Washington and its allies.
Nevertheless, the two communist regimes remain in close contact at a high level.
In 2022, Trong visited Beijing and met Xi just a week after the 20th party congress secured Xi a third term as China’s leader. And Xi visited Hanoi last year, just a few months after US President Joe Biden made a trip.
The two countries agreed to build a “Vietnam-China community with a shared future” and strengthen its political, economic, trade, and security cooperation.
Vietnam also upgraded its ties with the United States and Japan last year to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the country’s highest designation for a diplomatic relationship. Relations with China and India also have been given the same status.
