(Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping told Vietnam’s To Lam that he’s willing to build good ties with the Vietnamese leader, who’s on his first overseas trip since assuming his country’s top post.
“The fact that you have come to China on your first visit after assuming the post of General Secretary fully reflects the great importance you attach to the relations between the two parties and countries,” Xi said, according to a report from China’s state broadcaster on Monday.
“I am willing to establish a good working relationship and personal friendship with you,” Xi said in his remarks to Lam, who’s head of the Communist Party of Vietnam and also the nation’s president. Beijing will continue to prioritize its relationship with Hanoi as part of its neighborhood diplomacy, according to Xi.
China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, and the two sides seek to bolster their commercial ties while navigating long-standing territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Lam will look to push forward dozens of agreements signed in December during Xi’s first trip to Hanoi since 2017, including boosting trade and funding a cross-border railway.
Xi said in the Monday meeting that China is willing to “actively discuss the expansion” of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative with Vietnam, and improve rail connectivity, expressways and border checkpoints to “create secure and stable industry chains and supply chains.”
The two sides inked agreements in areas including customs inspection and industry, the report from state broadcaster CCTV added without elaborating.
Lam asked Xi for support in technology transfer and training, as well as quality investments in Vietnam’s key transport infrastructure projects, according to a post on the Vietnamese government’s website.
Vietnam has emerged as one of the biggest winners from US-China trade tensions, as businesses redirect billions of dollars from Beijing to the neighboring manufacturing powerhouse in a bid to secure supply chains.
The Vietnamese leader is scheduled to attend next month’s United Nations General Assembly in the US, and possibly meet President Joe Biden, Bloomberg News reported. The back-to-back China-US trips underscore Vietnam’s flexible foreign policy as it manages ties with the world’s two superpowers.
--With assistance from John Boudreau and Nguyen Xuan Quynh.
(Updates with details from Vietnamese side in seventh paragraph)
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