August 19, 2024 - General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of China Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President of Vietnam To Lam, Beijing, China 

Vietnam-China relations have continued to advance steadily, yielding significant achievements through high-level exchanges, diplomatic engagements, and historic mutual visits by top leaders of both Parties and countries in recent years.

Following the very successful official visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (October 2022), General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Vietnam in December 2023. The visit highlighted the two-way agreement on the continued deepening and elevation of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and the formation of a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.

Then, during the state visit to China by General Secretary and President To Lam in August 2024, the two sides issued the Joint Statement on further strengthening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and promoting the construction of a Vietnam-China community with a shared future.

Most recently, during an official visit to Vietnam in October 2024 by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the two countries' senior leaders reached many important common perceptions, such as continuing and upholding the traditional Vietnam-China friendship, maintaining a strategic and long-term vision for Vietnam-China relations, and elevating the relationship of the two Parties and the two countries to new heights.

Therefore, it is obvious that high-level exchanges and contacts have been playing a strategic role in guiding and leading Vietnam-China relationship to develop more strongly, more stably, more effectively and more substantially.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other leaders attend the Vietnam-China business forum, Chongqing city, China, November 8

The common perceptions reached through high-level visits and exchanges not only play a strategic role in shaping the two-way relationship development trend in the long term but also serve as a "compass" for deepening substantive bilateral cooperation and bringing more specific benefits to the peoples and businesses of the two countries.

In fact, in the past few years, Vietnam-China relations have expanded across all sectors, with political trust strengthening through enhanced exchanges and cooperation via Party, Government, National Assembly, Fatherland Front, local, and people-to-people channels. Defense and security collaboration has deepened through diverse and flexible exchanges, while trade, investment, and tourism have seen significant growth. Currently, the two countries are actively carrying out many agreements and common perceptions to create new breakthroughs in economic cooperation to achieve better outcomes through specific projects in areas of mutual interest such as agricultural trade, high-quality investment, culture and tourism, people-to-people exchange, high-quality human resources development cooperation and railway connection.

In the phone call on January 15, General Secretary To Lam and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping jointly announced the launch of the Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange Year 2025 and agreed on joint activities to celebrate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. These activities will contribute to further deepening the solidarity and friendship of the people of the two countries and create new momentum to foster the continued development of Vietnam-China relations.

Looking back on the Vietnam-China relationship over the past years, the leaders of the two sides agreed that the development of one country presents an opportunity for the other to advance, serving as a positive factor for regional and global development. Based on those common perceptions, the peoples of Vietnam and China believe and hope that 2025 will be a milestone in a new and better development stage of the relationship between the two Parties, the two States and the two peoples.