China, Vietnam hold 10th meeting of steering committee on cooperation

The 10th meeting of the China-Vietnam steering committee on cooperation was held Monday, co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.

In the past year, China-Vietnam relations have continued their good development momentum, and exchanges in various fields have continuously deepened, Yang said.

He called for joint efforts to ensure the success of mutual visits by the leaders of the two parties and countries within the year and to upgrade the quality and standard of pragmatic cooperation.

Echoing Yang on the status of bilateral ties, Pham Binh Minh said his country highly values its comprehensive strategic cooperation with China, and expressed the Vietnamese side's willingness to deepen strategic coordination, enhance political trust, and beef up pragmatic cooperation.

Minh also expressed his wishes for the success of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to be held this year.

Yang and Minh hailed the significant role the steering committee mechanism has played since its establishment around 10 years ago.

Both sides agreed to implement the consensus reached by their leaders and map out plans for the whole year, spearheaded by deepened high-level visits.

The two sides also reached consensus on advancing their comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation by jointly promoting China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan, expanding cooperation in such areas as investment, capacity, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges, accelerating the building of cross-border economic cooperation zones, as well as properly managing differences to safeguard maritime peace and stability.

After the meeting, Yang and Minh attended the signing ceremony of the meeting minutes of the 10th meeting of the China-Vietnam steering committee on cooperation. Endit