Beijing (VNA) – The VietnameseEmbassy in China held a grand ceremony in Beijing on January 17 to mark the69th founding anniversary of Vietnam-China diplomatic relations.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador toChina Dang Minh Khoi highlighted the traditional friendship between Vietnam andChina, which was fostered by Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong, and many generationsof the two countries’ leaders.

Though the bilateral relations have experiencedups and downs over the past 69 years, friendly cooperation remains the main courseof action and the only correct choice that is significant to the development ofeach country, he said.

Developing its friendly and cooperative tieswith China is one of the top priorities in Vietnam’s external policy ofindependence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification, hestressed.

The diplomat expressed his pleasure at thepositive development of Vietnam-China relations in recent years, proven by theeffective implementation of the common perceptions reached by the two nations’leaders.

In 2018, the two countries celebrated the 10thanniversary of the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the first Chinese international importfair in Shanghai and had an important meeting with Chinese Party GeneralSecretary and President Xi Jinping. 

The Vietnamese PM also met his Chinesecounterpart Li Keqiang twice at multilateral forums last year. 

For the Chinese side, member of the StandingCommittee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Secretaryof the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Zhao Leji paid a visitto Vietnam, while Vice Premier Hu Chunhua attended the World Economic Forum onASEAN in Vietnam. Foreign Minister Wang Yi twice visited Vietnam and hadmultiple meetings with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham BinhMinh at multilateral forums, not to mention visits by leaders of ministries,sectors and localities of both countries. 

The Vietnamese ambassador noted that bilateraltrade is a highlight in the two countries’ relations, which is estimated toreach 150 billion USD in 2018, according to statistics from ChineseCustoms. 

Vietnam has been China’s biggest trade partner inthe ASEAN for three consecutive years, and the eighth largest worldwide.

Meanwhile, China has been a leading tradepartner of Vietnam over the past 15 years and became the seventh biggestforeign investor in Vietnam in 2018, Khoi said.

People-to-people exchanges have also beenfurther strengthened. In the first 10 months of 2018, Vietnam welcomed nearly6.5 million Chinese tourists, becoming the third most favoured destination forChinese people after Thailand and Japan. Over the same period, more than 6.3million Vietnamese tourists travelled to China, ranking second among foreign arrivalsin China and first among those from ASEAN.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Qin Gang affirmedthat China attaches great importance to its relations with Vietnam and willcontinue pursuing the motto of “friendly neighbourliness, comprehensivecooperation, long-term stability, and looking towards the future,” and in thespirit of “good neighbours, good friends, good comrades, and good partners”.  

China, he said, is willing to work with Vietnamto effectively implement the common perceptions reached by leaders of the twocountries’ parties and states in recent times, as well as promote the bilateralcomprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

The bilateral relations in 2019 will continue tosee new strides forward with more important high-level visits and practicalcooperation activities in preparation for the 70th anniversary of the establishmentof Vietnam-China diplomatic ties in 2020, he added.–VNA