Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang

On the afternoon of September 12, right after the official welcoming ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang welcomes Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA

In a sincere and friendly atmosphere, the two Prime Ministers informed each other about the situation of each Party and each country; in-depth exchanged opinions on important issues in bilateral relations and reached a broad common understanding on deepening the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new situation.

Increased political trust

The two sides agreed to jointly preserve and promote the Vietnam-China friendship, persistently respect each other, strengthen strategic exchanges, increase political trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, properly control and handle existing disagreements and emerging issues, promote the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to continue to develop healthily and stably, bring practical benefits to the people of the two countries, and actively contribute to promoting peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked the Chinese leaders and people for their warm and respectful welcome to the delegation and wished the Chinese people continued to achieve great achievements in national construction and development.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc informed Prime Minister Li Keqiang of some results of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam; affirmed that Vietnam will continue to comprehensively and synchronously innovate, promote industrialization, modernization and international integration; focus on achieving the goal of ensuring macroeconomic stability, economic and cultural development, implementing democracy, progress and social justice, creating a peaceful and stable environment for national development, and striving to soon turn Vietnam into a basically modern industrialized country.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam is steadfast in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development; diversification and multilateralization; prioritizing the development of relations with neighboring countries; focusing on relations with all major countries and important partners; proactively and actively integrating internationally and participating in regional and international cooperation mechanisms, especially ASEAN and the United Nations. Preserving traditional friendship, developing a stable, healthy and sustainable comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China for the benefit of the two peoples, the region and the world is a consistent policy, a strategic choice and a top priority in the foreign policy of the Party and State of Vietnam.

Good control of disagreements at sea

The Prime Minister proposed major directions and measures to continuously develop the relationship between the two Parties and countries in the coming time, including maintaining high-level exchanges, promoting exchanges and cooperation through Party channels, between the National Assembly agencies, mass organizations and people of the two countries; promoting the role of cooperation mechanisms between the two Governments, expanding cooperation in important areas such as defense, security, diplomacy, and strengthening coordination at multilateral forums; striving to develop substantive cooperation between the two countries in a stable, balanced and sustainable manner; creating conditions to promote local cooperation and land border management between the two countries; controlling disagreements at sea, maintaining peace and stability at sea, and not letting maritime issues affect the healthy development of the relationship between the two Parties and countries.

On behalf of Vietnam's senior leaders, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc invited General Secretary and President Xi Jinping to pay an official visit to Vietnam and attend the APEC Summit in 2017; invited Prime Minister Li Keqiang to visit Vietnam again soon; welcomed Chairman of the National People's Congress Zhang Dejiang to visit Vietnam in 2016 and other Chinese leaders to visit Vietnam at an appropriate time.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a frank discussion about the existing problems and shortcomings in some areas of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries; emphasizing that both sides need to strengthen the direction of agencies and enterprises to actively exchange and remove difficulties and obstacles to promote balanced and sustainable development of economic and trade relations. Accordingly, the Prime Minister proposed that China cooperate and jointly implement practical measures to gradually balance trade, continue to increase the import of Vietnamese products with advantages, especially agricultural, forestry, aquatic and seafood products, including rice; and soon grant licenses for Vietnamese meat, milk and processed fruit juice products to be exported to the Chinese market.

Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

Vietnam attaches importance to high-tech, environmentally friendly requirements.

Regarding investment cooperation, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that in the sustainable development strategy being implemented, Vietnam attaches importance to the requirements of high technology, efficiency, and environmental friendliness; requests China to increase investment in Vietnam, especially in the fields of high-tech agriculture, machine manufacturing, supporting industries, and renewable energy; promptly deploy an additional loan worth 250 million USD for the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway project, ensuring progress and quality, and putting this project into use as planned; promptly complete the planning of the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong standard wide-gauge railway; study the signing of an Agreement on financial management of infrastructure investment projects using preferential credit between the two countries to ensure the efficiency and progress of disbursement for the projects. The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam will actively promote cooperation projects connecting the “Two Corridors, One Belt” framework with appropriate content in the “One Belt, One Road” initiative on the basis of ensuring feasibility and suitability to the requirements of both sides.

The Prime Minister suggested that the two sides continue to strengthen cooperation in regulating water discharge on the upper Mekong River during the dry season; soon discuss the continued use of the hotline on sudden incidents arising from fishing activities at sea, and coordinate to properly handle this issue; increase the exchange of experiences on environmental protection and climate change response; effectively implement the agreements at the 9th meeting of the Vietnam-China Joint Committee on Science and Technology; urgently discuss and sign a new railway transport agreement, creating favorable conditions for aviation cooperation; create equality for the two sides' means of transporting goods and passengers entering each other's territories; effectively implement the Tourism Cooperation Plan for the period 2016-2018, improve service quality, and ensure tourism order and safety.

Regarding maritime issues, the Prime Minister emphasized Vietnam's consistent and unchanging stance of persistently resolving disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means in accordance with international law, including the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, and respecting the diplomatic and legal process. In the face of recent complicated developments in the maritime situation, he requested that both sides strictly comply with the agreements and common perceptions of the two countries' senior leaders, the "Agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of maritime issues", respect each other's legitimate interests in accordance with the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, properly control disagreements at sea, do not take actions that complicate or expand disputes, promote negotiation mechanisms at sea to soon have substantial progress; properly handle fisheries issues; continue to promote cooperation on search and rescue; Together with ASEAN countries, comprehensively and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), promptly develop and complete the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in 2017 on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the signing of the DOC.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Li Keqiang witnessed representatives of ministries and sectors of the two countries signing cooperation documents. Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu

China does not pursue trade surplus with Vietnam

Premier Li Keqiang warmly welcomed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Party and Government on their official visit to China; emphasizing that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit was the first by a high-ranking Vietnamese leader after the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the newly elected National Assembly of Vietnam, and was of great significance in promoting the relationship between the two Parties and the two countries to continue developing in the coming time.

Premier Li Keqiang affirmed that China attaches importance to developing relations with Vietnam; persists in the motto of friendly neighborliness, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term stability with Vietnam; expresses approval for the major directions and measures proposed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; affirms that China does not pursue a trade surplus with Vietnam, is willing to promote bilateral trade balance, resolve existing problems and difficulties, encourage Chinese enterprises to strengthen trade cooperation and expand investment in Vietnam; strives with Vietnam to control maritime disagreements well, maintain the overall situation of China-Vietnam relations and peace and stability in the East Sea.

After the talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of nine cooperation documents, including: Agreement on the extension of the five-year development plan for economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and China for the 2017-2021 period; Agreement on economic and technical cooperation on the provision of non-refundable aid between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Government of the People's Republic of China; Framework agreement on an additional loan of 250.62 million USD for the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway line, List of production capacity cooperation projects; Amended border trade agreement; Memorandum of Understanding on the development of the infrastructure construction cooperation plan for the 2016-2020 period; Agreement on educational cooperation between the two Ministries of Education for the 2016-2021 period; Memorandum of Understanding on the donation of equipment to support climate change response (worth 20 million Yuan).

According to Chinhphu.vn