Vietnam and China signed 10 agreements on Sunday, together with increasing cross-border railway connections, funds and financial cooperation.
The signatures adopted a gathering between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and visiting Chinese language Prime Minister Li Qiang.
They agreed to work on a technical plan for a rail hyperlink between Lao Cai in northern Vietnam and Hekou in China’s Yunnan province.
The 2 sides additionally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on implementing cross-border cost providers via QR codes and an settlement to review a mannequin for an “financial cooperation zone” throughout their border.
China is Vietnam’s largest buying and selling accomplice, however the two nations share historic tensions, together with within the South China Sea, a waterway via which trillions of {dollars} of commerce move every year.
Vietnam’s prime chief To Lam and Li agreed on Saturday to spice up financial and protection cooperation, Vietnamese state media reported.
The 2 agreed to “preserve common high-level exchanges and cooperation in protection, safety and overseas affairs…increasing the implementation of latest mechanisms,” Nhan Dan newspaper reported.
Vietnam would facilitate extra Chinese language high-tech investments within the nation and Beijing would strengthen market entry for Vietnamese agricultural merchandise, the newspaper stated.
Tensions have just lately erupted between the 2 nations over territorial claims within the South China Sea.
For years, China has sought to increase its presence in disputed areas of the ocean, ignoring a world ruling that its declare to a lot of the waterway has no authorized foundation.
Hanoi protested final week over what it referred to as a “brutal” assault by Chinese language vessels on Vietnamese fishermen in a disputed space of ​​the ocean.
At Saturday’s assembly, Vietnam’s Lam “urges each side to…higher handle and resolve variations” on maritime points, the Nhan Dan newspaper stated.
Lam took over as secretary-general in early August following the dying of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.
He later met Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Beijing throughout his first journey overseas.