~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
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Vietnam PMs laud the stability of socialism

BEIJING - Stability in China and Vietnam amid the Asian financial crisis has shown the ``advantage of socialism,'' local media quoted Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji as telling his Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Khai.

Zhu and Khai, the first Vietnamese prime minister to visit China since the two communist neighbors normalized ties in 1991, discussed the Asian crisis and their growing bilateral ties in a meeting Monday, the China Daily and Xinhua news agency said.

``Although they suffered from the Asian financial crisis to different extents, the two countries have both managed to maintain social stability and economic development, and this has fully demonstrated the advantage of socialism and the development potential of both nations,'' Xinhua quoted Zhu as telling Khai.

Khai expressed admiration for China's efforts in maintaining the stability of its currency and in realizing its eight percent economic growth target, Xinhua said.

The meeting underscored an ``important consensus'' on peacefully solving disputes over land borders and the Tonkin Gulf, agreeing to speed up negotiations to settle both issues by the end of the century, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

``The two sides have had many negotiations on the boundary and we hope that by the year 2000 we can complete negotiations in accordance with the agreement,'' spokesman Tang Guoqiang said.

Zhu and Khai also signed a treaty of mutual judicial assistance on civilian and criminal affairs, an agreement on border trade and a consular treaty, Xinhua said.

Khai's five-day visit is the latest in a series of party, government and military exchanges to follow the visit of his predecessor, Vo Van Kiet, to China in 1991 to normalize ties between the once-hostile neighbors.

Chinese troops invaded Vietnam in 1979 to punish Hanoi for toppling the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The border war inflicted heavy casualties on both sides, but was seen as an embarrassment for China's large but backward army.

After a subsequent decade of chilly ties, reconciliation was made possible by the winding down of the Soviet military presence in Vietnam and the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia.

The collapse of Europe's communist regimes left the two Asian countries alone as the world's last major communist governments. Vietnam has largely adhered to China's strategy of pursuing economic reform without enacting political reforms which threaten communist control.

Zhu briefed Khai on China's restructuring of state-owned enterprises and financial reforms, Xinhua said.

The Xinhua account of the Zhu-Khai meeting made no mention of the contentious issue of competing territorial claims over the Spratlys and other islands in the South China Sea.

China's spokesman Tang declined to answer a reporter's question on the disputed islands.

Last month, China accused Vietnamese soldiers of illegally seizing Chinese territory in the potentially mineral-rich Spratly Islands, which are known by the Chinese as the Nansha Islands, and demanded their immediate withdrawal.

Vietnam countered by saying the accusations were groundless and that the people were civilians and not troops.

While both sides say they are committed to finding solutions to the maritime disputes, there has been no substantial progress, analysts have said.

Reuters - October 20, 1998.