Hanoi (VNA) – ✃Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son held talks with Chen Gang, Secretary of the Communist༒ Party of China (CPC) Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in Hanoi on February 19.

The talks took place as part of Chen’s visit to Vietnam where he also attended a New Year meeting for secretaries of the Party committees of Vietnam’s Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Ha Giang provinces and China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Son emphasised the long-standing friendship between the two countries as well as the close ties between Guangxi and Vietnamese localities, saying Guangxi has been at the forefront in collaboration with Vietnam. Both sides expressed delight at the strong and positive momentum of the Vietnam-China relations, especially after the two countries agreed to elevate their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and build a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance in December 2023. They held that alongside the overall progress in bilateral relations, cooperation and exchanges between Vietnamese ministries, agencies, and localities and Guangxi have yielded significant achievements, especially in people-to-people exchange, trade and investment cooperation, transport connectivity, and border management coordination. Looking ahead, Son suggested the two sides make full use of the Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange Year 2025 and the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties to enhance exchanges at all levels and across various sectors. He also stressed the need to further promote customs clearance efficiency, accelerate the development of a pilot smart border gate model between Lang Son and Guangxi, and step up multimodal transport connectivity via rail, road, and sea. The two sides should prioritise advancing the planning of Lang Son-Hanoi, and Mong Cai-Ha Long-Hai Phong standard-gauge railway routes, the official continued. Furthermore, he called for expanded cooperation in investment, science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and clean energy, among other fields. Son also suggested the two sides work together in border management and protection in accordance with the three legal documents on the Vietnam-China land border and related documents. He highlighted joint efforts in ensuring the safe and effective operation of the Ban Gioc (Vietnam) – Detian (China) Waterfalls landscape site, and he called on Guangxi to provide more Chinese language scholarships for Lang Son and other Vietnamese localities. Agreeing with Son’s proposals, Chen affirmed that Guangxi highly values its friendship and cooperation with Vietnam and stands ready to materialise common perceptions reached by high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and countries, contributing to fostering the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and advancing the building of a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance. Chen also raised specific proposals to boost cooperation in areas such as all-level delegation exchange, economy, trade, customs facilitation, science-technology, AI, and cross-border transportation connectivity. He extended an invitation to Vietnamese government representatives and businesses to participate in the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning in 2025, which will focus on digital economy and AI./.