Vietnamese top leader Tô Lâm to visit China, at invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping

Party General Secretary and President Tô Lâm. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee and State President of Việt Nam, along with his spouse, will be paying a State visit to China from August 18-20, according to a statement released on Thursday from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The visit is made at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee & State President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, and his spouse.

This will mark Tô Lâm’s first overseas trip since he was elected General Secretary of the CPV early this month. 

Following the highly successful official visit to China by the late General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng (October 2022) and the state visit to Việt Nam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping and his spouse (December 2023), the two sides issued a joint statement on ‘continuing deepening and elevating the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries and building a Việt Nam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance’ and signed 36 cooperation agreements across various fields.

In terms of substantive cooperation in areas such as trade, investment and tourism, Việt Nam maintains its position as China’s largest trading partner within ASEAN and its fifth-largest trading partner globally by country. Bilateral trade volume in 2023 reached US$171.9 billion.

In the first six months of 2024, bilateral import-export turnover amounted to $94.5 billion (an increase of 24.1 per cent year on year), with Việt Nam exporting $27.8 billion to China, up 5.3 per cent and importing $66.7 billion from China, up 34.1 per cent. Việt Nam’s trade deficit with China stood at $38.9 billion, a 66.7 per cent increase.

In 2023, China’s investment in Việt Nam reached $4.47 billion across 707 projects, making it the fourth-largest investor in Việt Nam  by registered capital and the largest in terms of the number of projects. In the first six months of 2024, China ranked fifth with registered capital of $1.299 billion but led in the number of newly licensed projects with 447 projects. As of the end of June 2024, cumulative Chinese investment in Việt Nam reached $28.23 billion (ranking it seventh out of 148 countries and territories with investments in Việt Nam), with 4,667 valid projects.

The Chinese have invested in 19 out of 21 sectors open to foreign investment and across 55 out of 63 provinces in Việt Nam.

In terms of tourism, after three years of interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Việt Nam welcomed 1.75 million Chinese visitors in 2023, making China the second-largest source of tourists to the country. In the first seven months of 2024, Việt Nam received 2.14 million Chinese visitors, accounting for 27.1 per cent of total international arrivals to Việt Nam, second only to South Korea.

Regarding border and territorial issues, the situation along the land border and in the Gulf of Tonkin remains generally stable.

The two sides are planning to organise activities to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Land Border Treaty and the 15th anniversary of the signing of three legal documents on the Việt Nam-China land border. The situation in the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) remains complex but is largely under control and mechanisms for exchanges and negotiations between the two sides on maritime issues are regularly maintained. — VNS