Vietnam, China ink 36 cooperation documents, agree to build ‘shared future community’

Vietnam and China have signed 36 agreements that lay out cooperation in several areas including security-defense during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit, and decided to deepen their 15-year comprehensive strategic partnership.

After official talks on Tuesday, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and his Chinese counterpart Xi examined the 36 documents signed between the two countries’ Party agencies, ministries and localities.

The documents were divided into four main categories, with four involving politics and foreign affairs signed between the two countries’ Party commissions and foreign ministries.

The security-defense realm also had four documents inked about crime prevention, maritime cooperation and judicial services. The two countries’ defense ministries signed a memorandum of understanding on joint patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin, while their public security ministries signed agreements on extradition and crime prevention.

The other 24 documents detail cooperation at government and ministerial levels in fields such as transport, development, rescue at sea, trade, digital transition, communication, agriculture, environment, climate change adaptation, and copyrights.

The last four agreements were signed between individual localities in the two countries, mainly those in border areas.

Notably, the countries agreed to enhance connectivity between their economic corridors with the Belt and Road Initiative, and railway cooperation.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment and the China International Development Cooperation Agency signed a memorandum of understanding on enhancing development cooperation and promoting the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI).

During talks, Vietnam’s Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong expressed his belief that the visit will mark a historic milestone, taking relations between the two Parties and countries to a new height and meeting the aspirations and common interests of their people for the sake of peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Trong affirmed the Vietnamese Party and State’s consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, diversification and multilateralization of external ties, as well as the defense policy of “Four Nos”.

For his part, Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping said China attaches great importance to its relations with Vietnam, considering Vietnam a priority in China's foreign policy in its neighborhood.

Touching on the thorny South China Sea issue, the two leaders stressed the necessity to better control and actively settle disagreements at sea, as well as maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea, and the region.

Party General Secretary Trong proposed both sides concretize the perceptions reached by high-level leaders, respect each other’s legal and legitimate interests, not complicate the situation, and settle disputes via peaceful measures in accordance with international laws, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

Both sides agreed to build a Vietnam-China community with a shared future, which holds strategic significance, striving for the happiness of the people of both nations, for global peace and progress.

This initiative aligns with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, based on the principles of mutual respect, equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, respect for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and persistency in resolving disagreements through peaceful measures.