Hanoi (AFP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday with a mission to strengthen ties, months after Hanoi strengthened its diplomatic ties with Washington.
First change: 12/10/2023 – 03:44 Last change: 12/10/2023 – 03:42
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China and Vietnam share a border, have close economic ties and both have communist governments, but Xi's two-day visit will be the first in six years.
This comes after US President Joe Biden visited Hanoi in September to seek support amid growing Chinese influence in the region.
“From China’s perspective, the visit will underscore that it has not lost Vietnam to the rival camp,” said Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia program.
“For Vietnam, it represents its successful 'bamboo diplomacy', which allows it to maneuver between opposing powers without having to take sides with one or the other,” he told AFP.
Xi will meet Nguyen Phu Trong, head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, in Hanoi on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, he will lay a wreath at the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh and then meet with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Vo Van Thuong.
Vietnam and China have a broad strategic alliance, Vietnam's highest diplomatic status. The country raised its relations with the United States to the same level in September.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the visit would include talks to “take China-Vietnamese relations to a higher level.”
The agenda includes issues such as “politics, security, practical cooperation, public opinion formation, multilateral and maritime issues,” Wang said.
Economic Cooperation
Vietnam shares Washington's concerns about Beijing's growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.
China irritated several Southeast Asian countries by presenting a new official map on September 1 in which it claims sovereignty over almost the entire sea.
Maritime borders are a sensitive issue for Hanoi, which banned local screenings of the film “Barbie” in July because a map containing a line used on Chinese maps of the region briefly surfaced.
Political researcher Nguyen Khac Giang told AFP that Xi's visit represents an opportunity for China to move closer to Vietnam, perhaps through China's diplomatic concept of a “community of common destiny.”
This sentence alludes to a vision of future cooperation on economic, political and security issues.
“Although Vietnam remains cautious about Chinese policy initiatives, we can expect greater progress in economic cooperation, especially in infrastructure and green energy transition,” Giang said.
Vietnamese state media reported in November that China Rare Earth Group Co. was seeking alliances with Vietnamese mining giant Vinacomin.
In September, the United States and Vietnam agreed to work together to help Hanoi develop its rare earth resources.
The United States has said Vietnam, with the world's second-largest reserves of rare earths, is key to reducing dependence on China, which has the largest reserves.
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