The upcoming visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to China is a major event for both countries and China believes it will promote further development of the Sino-Vietnamese good-neighborly partnership, said a ChineseForeign Ministry spokesman in Beijing on May 13.

The ministry's spokesman Liu Jianchao announced at a regular press conference that Phan Van Khai will pay an official visit to China from May 20 to 24 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

He said China and Vietnam kept frequent high-level visits in recent years and Phan's upcoming visit is an important visit of the two countries in 2004. During his visit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold talks with him and Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders will meet with him.

Leaders of the two countries will exchange opinions on bilateral relations, and especially on boosting bilateral cooperation, Liu said.

Besides Beijing, Phan will also visit Wuhan and Shenyang, he said.

Liu said China and Vietnam are neighbors with common borders and people of the two countries have long-standing friendly exchanges.

At the turning of the century, leaders of the two countries setdown the principle of long-term stability, future orientation, friendly neighborliness, and comprehensive cooperation.

Under the guidance of the principle, the Sino-Vietnamese relations develop well in general, Liu said.

He said leaders of the two sides have kept close contacts, and the bilateral economic and trade relations have been deepened continuously. The bilateral trade volume increased from 32.27 million in 1991 to 4.6 billion in 2003. The issues left over by history of the two countries, such as the border issue, are gradually resolved.

He said the healthy and stable development of the Sino-Vietamese relations is in the fundamental interest of the two peoples.