Vietnam always maintains its long-lasting and consistent policy of consolidating and strengthening the friendly neighborliness and comprehensive cooperation with China, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said. PM Dung made the statement during his talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on September 2 in Nanning city, where he led a Vietnamese delegation to the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 10th China-ASEAN Business-Investment Summit held there the same day. The PM highly valued the careful preparations by the authorities of China and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region for the events, adding that CAEXPO has become one of the most prestigious expos in the region and a good opportunity for ASEAN and China to strengthen their friendship and strategic partnership. In reply, Premier Li Keqiang said the delegation’s participation in the expo and summit reflects the Vietnamese Party and Government’s appreciation of strengthening the relationship with China as well as their support for the events.

The Chinese Party, State and people always attach importance to relations with Vietnam and are willing to strengthen the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, the Premier said.

The two leaders said they were delighted to see positive developments in the bilateral ties over the past time and agreed to enhance cooperation for mutual benefit in all fields, especially economics and trade in order to fulfill the target of raising bilateral trade to US$60 billion by 2015. Regarding the East Sea-related issues, the two sides agreed that the two countries need to resolve every matter via peaceful negotiations and well control the situation at sea in order to maintain peace and stability in the area. In addition, the two sides should strictly obey the agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues between Vietnam and China, and settle disputes by peaceful means and on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), PM Dung said. He suggested the two countries soon put into operation the hotlines between the two Defense Ministries and fishery agencies as agreed, contributing to promptly deal with arising problems, especially those relating to fishing vessels and fishermen at sea.

PM Dung also invited Premier Li Keqiang to visit Vietnam at an early date and the latter accepted the invitation.