Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held phone talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on June 4. 

The two PMs exchanged on various practical and specific topics with the aim to consolidating and enhancing the two countries’ political trust, discussing measures to foster the bilateral ties, especially socio-economic cooperation.

PM Pham reiterated that maintaining and promoting the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China remains a top priority in Viet Nam’s foreign policy.

He went on to say that the healthy and effective advancement of the Viet Nam-China relationship would be an important factor for stability and development in each country and contribute to peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Pham congratulated the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its upcoming 100th founding anniversary, expressing his belief that China will continue reaping greater achievements and making positive contributions to the maintenance of peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the world.

The two Government leaders reached high concensus that the relations between the two Parties and two States have developed well in all fields over the pas time thanks to the direct guidance of Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping as well as the sides’ joint efforts.

They discussed and reached common perceptions on the importance of the Viet Nam-China traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

The leaders agreed on measures to boost the relationship through maintaining regular exchanges and contracts via flexible forms that suite the current context, improving the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of bilateral economic-trade-investment cooperation, sharing COVID-19 fight and economic development experiences, and tightening coordination at regional and international mechanisms.

The two PMs underlined the need to accelerate completion of the joint projects, including the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line.

Both sides also emphasized the importance of fishery cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin and the need to beef up the signing of an agreement on establishing a hotline to address emerging issues related to fishery activities at sea.

PM Pham called for joint efforts to maintain peace and stability, to satisfactorily settle sea-related issues in accordance with the common perceptions reached by the two countries’ senior leaders and respect for the rule of law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to effectively control divergences and pay due attention to each other’s legitimate interests and rights in order to foster the settlement of the East Sea issue.

He also called for active collaboration with ASEAN in stepping up the negotiation process so as to soon reach an effective and substantial Code of Conduct in the East Sea./.