Expanded common interests strengthen building of community with shared future: China Daily editorial

That Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with not only Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh but also To Lam, chief of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Tran Thanh Man, head of the country's top legislature, during his eventful three-day visit to Vietnam starting Saturday shows the all-encompassing nature of China-Vietnam relations.

Li's visit, which comes just two months after Lam paid a state visit to China, is expected to create the ground to transform the strategic blueprint for advancing bilateral relations and building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future, as envisaged by the two heads of state, into concrete cooperative projects. It will also inject new vitality into the traditional friendship between the two countries.

Following their talks on Sunday, Li and Chinh witnessed the exchange of cooperation documents in various fields, including infrastructure connectivity, agricultural products, customs, finance, human resources, media and education.

The cooperation projects, according to the newly inked documents, cover fields such as industry, academia and research, with special focus on clean energy, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, highlighting the compatibility between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" development policy, and the structural complementarity of the two economies.

The multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation agreements which China and Vietnam are already signatories to, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the "Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area", will provide a broad platform and make it easier for the two countries to implement the freshly inked cooperation projects.

Economic and trade cooperation has always been a highlight of overall China-Vietnam cooperation, which in turn has helped advance bilateral ties to higher levels. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, and Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in ASEAN.

By deepening their win-win cooperation on finance, technology, investment, transportation infrastructure, the digital economy, the green economy, and industry and supply chain connectivity, the two sides can effectively expand their common interests that will help prevent external forces from sowing discord between them.

In the face of the fast-changing international landscape and growing global risks and challenges, China and Vietnam, as socialist countries and friendly neighbors, need to make concerted efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and join hands to promote peace and common development in the region. China has always prioritized its relations with Vietnam in its neighborhood diplomacy, as Li said. Hearteningly, the Vietnamese side echoed Li, saying that developing relations with China is a top priority and strategic choice for the CPV and the Vietnamese government.

As Li emphasized, the two sides have every reason to stick to the principle of friendly consultation, properly handle their differences and deepen maritime cooperation, so that they can appropriately settle their disputes through friendly consultation, prevent external forces from exploiting them for their own narrow ends, and jointly safeguard regional maritime peace and stability.

The two countries should take the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of China-Vietnam diplomatic relations and the "China-Vietnam Year of People-to-People Exchanges", both to be observed next year, to further deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, deepen understanding between the two peoples, especially the younger generations, and carry forward the cause of China-Vietnam friendship.

China is ready to work with Vietnam to strengthen coordination and cooperation on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, in order to improve global governance, better safeguard the interests of developing countries and build a China-Vietnam community with a shared future, which is of strategic significance to regional peace, stability and development.