Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for greater cooperation with Vietnam after leadership overhaul

Xi urges both sides to expand trade and infrastructure connectivity in call to new President Nguyen Xuan Phuc

Chinese leader also offers to help its neighbour fight Covid-19, but steers clear of the two countries’ long-running dispute in the South China Sea

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Chinese President Xi Jinping pictured with Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Beijing in 2016. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 7:00pm, 25 May 2021Updated: 11:26pm, 25 May 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater cooperation with Vietnam as part of Beijing’s efforts to cultivate closer ties with the country’s reshuffled leadership.

In a phone call on Monday with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc – who was selected for the post by the national assembly last month – Xi said that both sides should expand trade and promote high-level infrastructure connectivity through the Belt and Road Initiative, according to China’s foreign ministry.

He also said China was willing to offer Vietnam help in fighting Covid-19, but the statement did not refer to the tensions caused by their overlapping claims in the energy-rich South China Sea.

“The two sides must continue to use a strategic and long-term perspective to view the relationship between the two parties and two countries, to anchor China-Vietnam relations in the correct direction,” Xi said.

“The Chinese Communist Party and government will firmly adhere to the policy of friendship with Vietnam, and we appreciate the new leadership of Vietnam for continuing to give top priority to foreign relations with China.”

Meanwhile, Phuc said that the two sides should strengthen their cooperation against Covid-19 and the quality of trade and investment ties, as well as handling maritime issues based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said. Both sides also issued invites for a state visit.