Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
On Monday, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, arrived in Hanoi to pay a state visit to Vietnam at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee To Lam and Vietnamese President Luong Cuong. Xi held talks with To Lam on Monday afternoon. This is Xi's first overseas trip this year, and also the first visit to China's neighboring countries after the central conference on work related to neighboring countries was held in Beijing last week. The visit has generated widespread attention from the international community. The Vietnam News Agency said the visit "is a significant political and diplomatic event for both parties and countries, carrying strategic importance and long-term impact on the development of the bilateral relations."
The leaders of the two countries exchanged in-depth views on the overall, strategic and directional issues of the relations between the two parties and the two countries, and jointly drew up a new blueprint for the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.
Xi proposed six measures to deepen the building of the China-Vietnam community with a shared future, which include enhancing strategic mutual trust at a higher level, building a more solid security barrier, expanding higher-quality mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthening the ties of wider public opinion, carrying out closer multilateral cooperation, and achieving more benign maritime interactions.
After the talks, the leaders of the two countries jointly witnessed the display of 45 bilateral cooperation documents signed by China and Vietnam, covering areas such as connectivity, artificial intelligence, customs inspection and quarantine, agricultural product trade, culture and sports, people's livelihood, human resources development, and media.
This visit coincides with the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam. As socialist neighbors connected by mountains and rivers, China and Vietnam are standing at a new starting point for the development of bilateral relations.
In recent years, bilateral relations have made a lot of progress, based not only on strategic cooperation on common ideals, beliefs and development pursuits, but also on the actual needs of both sides to achieve complementary advantages and resource sharing in the fields of economy, infrastructure, industrial chain, and etc.
"China is ready to better align its development with that of its neighbors, and work with them together to build a community with a shared future and deliver a better life to all." The significance of building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future is highly concrete in the interaction between China and Vietnam.
Under the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, China-Vietnam relations have achieved new breakthroughs: from joint efforts in combating transnational crime and the successful holding of the "3+3" strategic dialogue, to the orderly progress in railway connectivity and smart port construction between the two countries, as well as bilateral trade surpassing $260 billion and increasingly close cooperation in industrial and supply chains. The realization of "one-day travel between the two countries" has further brought the people of both nations closer together. As two important countries in the region, the strong cooperation between China and Vietnam sets a benchmark for other countries in building transnational infrastructure networks and promoting regional economic cooperation, forming a virtuous circle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.
Neighboring countries are China's priority in its diplomacy, and China always gives Vietnam high priority in its neighborhood diplomacy. Likewise, Vietnam has always regarded the development of relations with China as a consistent stand and top priority in its foreign policy. The significance of China-Vietnam relations goes beyond the bilateral scope. People can feel the sincerity and goodwill of China in building a community with a shared future with neighboring countries, and can also see tangible results.
At present, China's relations with neighboring countries are at their best in modern history. This is both a result of China's practice of diplomatic principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness, as well as its policy of building friendly and cooperative relations with its neighbors. It also lays a solid foundation for further deepening cooperation and building a community with a shared future with neighboring countries.
At a time when regional dynamics and global transformations are closely intertwined, China's consistency and stability in its neighborhood diplomacy sends a strong and positive signal not only to Asia but also to the world, and meets with the general expectations of the international community.
Asia is a high ground for global cooperation and development, standing at a new starting point for overall revitalization and facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. According to purchasing power parity, by 2024, the total GDP of Asian economies is expected to account for 48.1 percent of the world's total and is also expected to continue rising. China is the largest economy in Asia, but its contribution to the development and prosperity of Asia goes far beyond economic significance.
China upholds the banner of a community with a shared future for mankind and has proposed a common vision for building an Asian homeland of peace, tranquility, prosperity, beauty and friendly coexistence, the Asian values of peace, cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, as well as the Asian security model that features sharing weal and woe, seeking common ground while shelving differences, and prioritizing dialogue and consultation. They have been widely recognized by neighboring countries and are crucial for achieving modernization in Asia.
Building China-Vietnam community with shared future carries great global significance. Both China and Vietnam are beneficiaries of economic globalization. China and Vietnam should strengthen strategic focus and jointly oppose unilateral bullying, Xi said, calling on the two sides to maintain the stability of the global free trade system and industrial and supply chains.
To address challenges, Asia needs to work hand in hand, deepen cooperation and foster collaboration to jointly safeguard the positive momentum of regional common development, showcase to the world "only by standing together through thick and thin can we navigate steadily toward a distant future."
