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

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Vietnam, China sign land border agreement

HANOI - Vietnam and China signed a long-awaited land border agreement on Thursday, bringing an end to years of dispute over the territorial marker.
Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and his Chinese counterpart Tang Jiaxuan signed the deal, which covers 1,200 km (750 miles) of shared border, at a ceremony in Hanoi.

Officials said the two sides would now focus on resolving territorial issues in the Tonkin Gulf in 2000. The Tonkin Gulf lies off northern Vietnam and southern China. Hanoi and Beijing also have competing claims over the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Sea. Tang arrived in Hanoi on Thursday and will return to Beijing on Friday. The land border agreement covers some 70 disputed areas, but officials gave few details of the signed deal. Leaders on both sides had previously set a year-end deadline for signing the agreement.

Vietnam and China have a long history of animosity despite their ideological and cultural similarities. Chinese troops poured southwards across the land border in 1979 to punish Hanoi for toppling the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which at the time was a China ally. The conflict inflicted heavy casualties on both sides. Tensions still flare occasionally over the competing sovereignty claims, especially in the South China Sea.

Reuters - December 30, 1999.