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Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang with Malaysian counterpart Zambry Abd Kadir in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Malaysia, Vietnam solidarity call as Beijing seeks to charm Southeast Asia

  • Foreign Minister Qin Gang underlines need for regional coordination to fend off geopolitical challenges as he meets Malaysian counterpart in Beijing
  • ‘China and Vietnam are comrades plus brothers’, Qin reminds Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son in phone call
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has called on his Malaysian and Vietnamese counterparts to help strengthen regional coordination in the face of geopolitical challenges, as Beijing steps up its diplomatic charm offensive in Southeast Asia.

Welcoming Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abd Kadir to Beijing on Tuesday, Qin highlighted the role of China and Malaysia as “important emerging economies and progressive forces in the international arena”.

The two sides need to “deepen cooperation and consolidate solidarity … so as to address risks and challenges”, Qin added, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

Qin also urged further efforts to broaden “high quality” cooperation, particularly in “new energy vehicles”, digital economy, semiconductor manufacturing and agriculture.

“We should strengthen strategic collaboration … safeguard international fairness and justice, and work together to safeguard the long-term interests of the majority of developing countries and emerging economies,” he told Zambry in what was their first in-person meeting.

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The same day, Qin held a phone call with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, when both sides agreed to push bilateral ties to a new level on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of their “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”.

The two ministers pledged to “strengthen strategic communication, consolidate political mutual trust and intensify interactions at all levels and in all fields”, the Chinese ministry readout said.

The two sides will work together to keep up the momentum for further cooperation following the meeting in October between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong in Beijing, Qin said.

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Xi Jinping says China will build stable supply chain with Vietnam

Xi Jinping says China will build stable supply chain with Vietnam
“China and Vietnam are ‘comrades plus brothers’,” Qin told Son, in a throwback to a comment from late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh during a high point in relations between the two socialist nations.

“The two sides should continue to support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns, Qin added.

Son said the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership was “a top priority in Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification”, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

Qin echoed the sentiment, saying that ties with Vietnam were “an important priority in China’s neighbourhood diplomacy”.

In the Vietnamese readout, Son also told Qin that practical measures were needed to maintain balanced and sustainable bilateral trade, and “to address obstacles to some projects [as well as] promote links via road, rail, sea and air”.

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Their phone call came as bilateral tensions spiked again over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, following a reportedly tense encounter between a Chinese coastguard ship and a Vietnamese fisheries patrol boat on Saturday.

The two vessels were reported to be very close one point, as the Chinese ship sailed through energy exploration blocks operated or owned by Russian firms, near waters claimed by both China and Vietnam.

The Chinese statement stopped short of mentioning the maritime disputes in the South China Sea, but the Vietnamese agency said the two sides agreed to jointly maintain a peaceful and stable environment in the region.

China has engaged in a flurry of neighbourhood diplomacy as competition with the US intensifies, with Southeast Asia viewed as strategically crucial to countering the containment drive led by the US and its regional allies.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (second from right) is seen in a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 21. Photo: EPA-EFE
One of Qin’s deputies, foreign vice-minister Sun Weidong visited Manila last week for two days of meetings, including talks with Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo.

The discussions covered everything from South China Sea territorial disputes to a planned expansion of US military presence in the Philippines, which Beijing has strongly opposed.

Beijing’s claims to most of the resource-rich South China Sea under what it calls its historical “nine-dash line” are contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.

On Saturday, Sun flew to Brunei where he met Erywan Yusof, the country’s second foreign minister.

Beijing said the two sides discussed maritime cooperation, with Sun calling for joint efforts to “exclude external interference and take ownership of our own development and regional affairs firmly into our own hands”.

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