China says Vietnam President To Lam to make 3-day visit
"Vietnamese President To Lam will pay a state visit to China from August 18 to 20," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement Thursday, adding he had been invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China and Vietnam pledged to deepen bilateral ties when Xi visited the country last December, his first time there in six years.
That visit came after Vietnam and the United States upgraded diplomatic ties during US President Joe Biden's visit in September.
Now Lam will meet with Xi, Premier Li Qiang, and other officials in a sign of "the high importance he attaches to developing relations between the two parties and countries", China's foreign ministry said.
Vietnam has long pursued a "bamboo diplomacy" approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
It shares US concerns about Beijing's increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea, but it also has close economic ties with China.
The visit comes with tensions in the South China Sea high after a series of confrontations between the Philippines and China over the disputed Scarborough and Second Thomas shoals.
Vietnam, along with Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims most of.
China hopes the visit will help the two sides "deepen the construction of the China-Vietnam community with a shared future" and "make positive contributions to regional and world peace, stability, and development".
Vietnam and China, both ruled by communist parties, already share a "comprehensive strategic partnership", Vietnam's highest diplomatic status.
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