Vietnamese leaders treasure Vietnam-China relations: media

Vietnam is determined to bring the friendly, stable and comprehensive cooperative ties with China, which are broadened and deepened in recent years, to a new height, local media on Saturday quoted Vietnamese leaders as saying.

Ahead the official visit by Vietnamese State President Tran Duc Luong to China from July 18 to 22 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Vietnamese media interviewed him about the trip.

"Chinese President Hu Jintao and I'll exchange views on the bilateral ties deeply, and set out key orientations and measures to reinforce and enhance mutual understanding and trust between the two parties and the two countries, especially to boost win-win relations in economic and trade cooperation," Vietnamese State President Tran Duc Luong said in an interview with the People newspaper.

He said he believes that his upcoming trip will contribute to the development of all-round cooperative, reliable and sustainable relations between Vietnam and China in conformity with the current regional and international situations.

"Despite changes in the world and ups and downs in the bilateral ties, facts in the past 55 years have shown that the traditional friendship and all-round cooperation between the two nations always play a leading role, meeting the vital aspiration and fundamental benefit of the two peoples," Luong stated.

Along with fine political relations, the Vietnam-China trade and economic ties have developed very quickly in recent years, creating a firm foundation for the bilateral relations, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told People's Army in an interview.

"Vietnam and China have conducted six rounds of bilateral negotiations on Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The two sides are completing the last work so that they can ink a declaration on the conclusion of the talks during the upcoming visit to China by State President Tran Duc Luong," Dung said.

"The Chinese government's support will create favorable conditions for Vietnam to quickly join the WTO, opening up new prospects for cooperation on many fields, including trade and economy," he said, predicting that the two countries will soon exceed the target of posting two-way trade of 10 billion US dollars set for 2010 by their leaders in 2004.

China's investment in Vietnam has also increased remarkably, Dung said, noting that the two sides will sign deals on some new cooperation projects during Luong's visit. "The two countries are implementing and discussing many large cooperation projects, including those on thermoelectricity plant construction, copper mining, railway signal upgrading, rail building and fertilizer production," he noted.

"The two sides have also reached a consensus on the construction of two economic corridors involving Yunnan and Guangxi and five Vietnamese localities of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai and Lang Son and the Beibu Gulf economic belt. Vietnam and China have maintained their close cooperation under the framework of the Greater Mekong Subregion, the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) plus China, the ASEM (the Asia-Europe Meeting) and the APEC (the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)," Dung said.

Source: Xinhua