Beijing, Hanoi try to navigate differences
Top diplomats reaffirm commitment to 20-year-old conduct agreement
China and Vietnam were treading lightly on maritime issues during Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son’s latest visit to Beijing, with both sides reaffirming their commitment to a 20-year-old conduct agreement and promising to bolster trade ties.
The talks between Son and Foreign Minister Wang Yi came amid tensions in the South China Sea, including the revival of the two countries’ territorial dispute in the Gulf of Tonkin and clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the region.
It also came after the sudden departure of Vietnam’s president, Vo Van Thuong.
On Thursday, Wang reiterated that China considered Vietnam a priority diplomatic partner and wanted to work with Hanoi to “jointly promote the solid development of the China-Vietnam community with a shared future”.
China and Vietnam should “properly manage differences, accelerate maritime cooperation and consultation on the South China Sea Code of Conduct, and resolve conflicts and differences through win-win cooperation”, Wang said.
The code of conduct will be based on the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea/ South China Sea signed between China and regional states at a 2002 Asean summit in Cambodia. The terms included commitments on encouraged and restrained behaviours in the waters.
In a veiled shot at the US, Wang said neighbouring states should be “wary of creating camp confrontations in the region” and “cobbling together various ‘small circles’ to undermine regional peace and stability”.
The Vietnamese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, Nhan Dan, reported that both sides “underlined the importance of seriously implementing the agreements and common perceptions reached between the two parties and countries’ leaders on properly controlling and settling differences”.
There was no mention of the recent stand-off between coastguard vessels from China and the Philippines near Second Thomas Shoal, but the report said China and Vietnam did agree to join Asean countries in “promoting negotiations and soon finalising a substantive, efficient and effective code of conduct in the waters” in accordance with relevant laws.
Wang pledged to strengthen “high-level strategic communication”, and expand cooperation in economic and trade investment, the digital economy, green development, new energy, and production of key minerals.
Also on Thursday, it was announced that the chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue, would lead a delegation to China for an official visit from April 7-12.
Wang and Son last met in December in Hanoi, at the 15th meeting of the Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation, which was created when the two countries established their “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”.
Thursday’s meeting followed a visit to Washington by Son, which was seen as an effort to assure world leaders the sudden resignation of Vo, the Vietnamese president, would not be destabilising.
Vietnamese Communist Party diplomatic chief Le Hoai Trung also visited Beijing last week, meeting Wang and other Chinese officials. The talks were focused on economic cooperation and the friendship shared between the two countries’ ruling communist parties, during which Wang pledged to “intensify high-level exchanges”.
Hanoi has been juggling its ties with “brother” Beijing and former foe Washington, guided by its strategic “Four Noes” policy: no partaking in military alliances, no siding with one country against another, no foreign military bases in Vietnamese territory, and no use of force in international relations.