Vietnamese President to visit China

Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong will pay a state visit to China from July 18 to 22 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the announcement at a regular press conference held in Beijing on July 12.

During Tran's visit, Liu said, the leaders of the two countries will exchange views on deepening Sino-Vietnamese relationship, enhancing mutually-beneficial cooperation and discussing international and regional issues of common concern.

The two sides will also sign a number of agreements on economic and trade cooperation.

"I believe the visit will play an active role in boosting the good-neighborly and friendly cooperation between the two countries," he said.

In recent years, China and Vietnam have achieved a sound development in bilateral relations, with frequent high-level exchanges and increasing political trust.

Remarkable achievements have been made in two-way trade cooperation with the trade volume last year reaching 6.74billion US dollars, an all time high. "That makes China the biggest trading partner of Vietnam," Liu said.

The bilateral trade volume in the first four months reached 25 billion US dollars, up 32 percent on a year-on-year basis.

"The two countries are carrying out increasingly active exchanges and cooperation in such fields as science, technology, culture and tourism," Liu said.

At the same time, the two sides are speeding up the pace for solving the issues concerning demarcation and fishery cooperation, Liu said.

"Now the two countries are discussing the pattern and terrain of joint exploitation at the South China Sea," he said.

Source: Xinhua