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.
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