Politburo member and Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on September 10 co-chaired the 13th meeting of the Steering Committee for Vietnam-China Bilateral Cooperation.
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| Politburo member and Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh (R) and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi__Photo: VNA |
The two sides agreed that, since the 12th meeting in July last year, the Vietnam-China relations has maintained a positive development trend.
The two sides also discussed issues such as imbalanced trade, disrupted trade activities, especially Vietnam's import-export through border gates, the delay of several economic cooperation and non-refundable assistance projects.
Deputy PM Minh suggested promoting win-win cooperation fields to meet the set progress in accordance with the spirit of common perceptions of senior leaders, and effectively using existing cooperation mechanisms between ministries, sectors and localities of the two countries.
The two sides agreed to promote high-level visits, effectively implement cooperation between the two Parties, uphold the role of the two foreign ministries in coordinating and boosting the bilateral relations; well implement mechanisms of exchange and cooperation in defense, security and law enforcement; and increase experience sharing in COVID-19 prevention and control, including cooperation on vaccines.
Wang Yi announced that his country will donate an additional 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam this year.
For his part, Deputy PM Minh thanked and highly appreciated China's support.
They agreed to resume commercial flights when conditions permit; continue taking measures to promote economic - trade cooperation, investment and development; soon complete procedures to open the market for Vietnamese agricultural products; accelerate upgrading or opening new pairs of border gates; encourage Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Vietnam using advanced and environmentally friendly technologies; and actively coordinate in solving difficulties in a number of cooperation projects.
Vietnam and China will also beef up cooperation in science and technology, environment, transportation, agriculture, health care, culture, education, tourism and people-to-people exchange, and coordination at multilateral forums.
The two sides also discussed border and territorial issues, and agreed to cooperate in land border management on the basis of strictly complying with agreements and legal documents on border.
Regarding issues at sea, the two sides agreed to continue to strictly adhere to high-level common perceptions, well control disagreements, not take actions to complicate the situation and expand disputes, and jointly maintain peace and stability in the East Sea.
The two countries will also promote negotiation and cooperation mechanisms, including cooperation in less sensitive areas, delimiting the waters outside the Gulf of Tonkin as well as completing negotiations towards the signing of a new agreement on fisheries cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Deputy PM Minh emphasized the importance of respecting each other's legitimate rights and interests, in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The two officials witnessed the signing of an economic-technical cooperation agreement between the two governments on the provision of non-refundable aid, the announcement on the completion of a series of bilateral memorandums of understanding, and the launch of a cooperation project on research in the Hong River Delta of Vietnam and the Yangtze River Delta of China.- (VNA/VLLF)
