On April 24, Party chief Nông Đức Mạnh and PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng separately had meetings with Chinese FM Yang Jiechi.

The Vietnamese leaders highlighted that the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV), the Government and Vietnamese people highly appreciate and have strong desire to further enhance the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Việt Nam and China.

General Secretary Mạnh hoped that the two foreign ministries proactively strive to realize high-level agreements, greater contributing to the relationship of the two countries.

PM Dũng raised his hope that the two sides would cement and deepen their economic and trade ties, proactively conduct and conclude the border demarcation and landmark planting, ink a new agreement on boundaries management in 2008 as negotiated by the senior leaders, speed up negotiations on the demarcation of territorial waters out of the Gulf of Tonkin, and jointly carry out surveys in this area.

Chinese FM Yang Jiechi emphasized that China will also make every effort to bring the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries to a higher level, particularly boosting economic and trade ties, increasing more Vietnamese imports and encouraging Chinese enterprises to penetrate into Việt Nam.

By Thanh Thúy