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

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China's Hu begins three-day Vietnam visit

HANOI - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Vietnam for a three-day visit aimed at shoring up ties between the Communist former rivals and countering growing US influence in Hanoi.

The two countries, historical enemies which fought a brief war in 1979 and only normalised ties in 1991, have gradually been putting behind territorial disputes in order to pursue more friendly relations. China is now one of Vietnam's main trading partners and Hu's visit -- his first since becoming Chinese president -- marks another step in their improving relationship.

"The maintenance of high-level meetings between leaders of the two countries represents a very important element contributing to the enhancement of mutual trust and understanding between the two peoples," Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung said. The Communist parties in the two nations have strong links and experts say Hanoi can undertake few reforms without tacit support from Beijing. "Hu's visit is even more important at a time when the leaders in Hanoi are preparing for the 10th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (next year) and are looking at the choice of new leaders, something China is watching very closely," said a Vietnamese diplomat who asked not to be named.

Hu will meet with President Tran Duc Luong as well as Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh during the three-day trip. The Vietnamese leadership is expected to try to ease Beijing's concern about US influence in the country. In June, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai became the first Vietnamese head of government to visit Washington since the end of the war between the two countries in 1975.

The United States and Vietnam have also signed a deal to let the Vietnamese army get technical, medical and language training in the United States. "Vietnamese will be trained in the US. I expect to see some (army) officers trained in China," said Carl Thayer, a specialist on Vietnam at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

Last week, China and Vietnam signed an agreement to engage in joint military patrols of the Gulf of Tonkin where the two nations have been involved in a border dispute for years. The deal was signed on Wednesday between Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and his visiting Vietnamese counterpart Pham Van Tra. Several sources in Hanoi have also raised the issue of China's desire to have a presence at Cam Ranh, a military base in the south of the country built by the United States during the war. "China could bring up its wish to rent Cam Ranh as a way of expanding its influence in the south," the Vietnamese diplomat said.

China and Vietnam are also rapidly building up economic relations. "At present, we are working very hard to achieve the target of the two-way trade turnover of 10 billion US dollars by 2010 ... (if possible even) ahead of schedule," Le Dung said. Vietnam had hoped to join the WTO this year and blamed the United States for "making trouble" over its bid. The country has now set its sights on joining in 2006, the 20th anniversary of its economic opening-up and transition towards a market economy.

Agence France Presse - October 31, 2005.


China President Hu Jintao Visits Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam - China's president arrived Monday in Vietnam on a mission to expand booming trade ties between the communist nations. The Vietnamese look to their giant neighbor to the north as a model for their economic development. The countries have maintained regular high-level visits since their normalization of relations in 1991.

About 1,000 people waving Vietnamese and Chinese flags welcomed President Hu Jintao on his arrival at Hanoi's international airport. Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan and Politburo member Nguyen Khoa Diem also were on hand. Hu was expected to meet with Vietnamese leaders later Monday. On Tuesday, he was expected to address parliament, a rare honor for a foreign leader.

The Associated Press - October 31, 2005.


Hu in Vietnam to pump up trade

Chinese President Hu Jintao has arrived in Vietnam for a three-day visit aimed at finding ways to expand trade ties. Since the normalisation of relations between the two communist countries 14 years ago, China has become Vietnam's largest trading partner. Bilateral trade exceeded $7bn last year.

About 1,000 well-wishers lined the streets of the capital Hanoi to greet Mr Hu, who is on his first trip to Vietnam since becoming president. On Tuesday President Hu will be given the rare opportunity of addressing the Vietnamese parliament. "We are satisfied with the good momentum of development of China-Vietnam relations," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said last week in Beijing. "Good relations with Vietnam serve the interests of both countries," he said. "This visit will help strengthen our bilateral ties, deepen and broaden relations between our two countries and raise relations to a new height."

Relations have been steadily progressing between the historical enemies since 1991, when the two sides formally ended the enmity that saw them fight a border war in 1979. Last week China and Vietnam agreed to start joint military patrols of the Gulf of Tonkin - which has been the subject of a border dispute between both countries for years. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said the two countries are also trying to achieve two-way trade of £10bn by 2010.

Mr Hu is in Vietnam after a three-day visit to North Korea, where he reportedly won a pledge from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that the country would take part in the next scheduled round of six-nation talks on its nuclear programme, due to take place in November.

BBC News - October 31, 2005.


China's Hu seeks friends, influence in Vietnam

HANOI - Chinese president Hu Jintao flew into Vietnam on Monday for a 3-day state visit likely to advance Beijing's long-term gameplan of neutralising ill-will on its doorstep through promises of closer economic ties, analysts said. Making his third visit to Vietnam, but only his first as president, Hu is to meet his Communist Party counterpart, Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

On Tuesday, he will also make a rare address by a foreign leader to Hanoi's parliament, a sign of the improving links between two Asian neighbours whose diplomatic relationship is catching up slowly with the explosion in their economic ties. He is also expected to sign an agreement to complete full demarcation of the joint 1,350 km (830 mile) border by 2008, a simmering dispute dating back to a brief war the two countries fought in 1979.

Analysts said Hu's visit follows in the mould of China's long-standing diplomatic goal to befriend its immediate neighbours to ensure they do not court U.S. involvement in the region as a strategic counterweight to Beijing. In the case of Vietnam, much of the concern centres around the hotly disputed oil-rich Spratly Islands, a string of rocky outcrops in the South China Sea variously claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"The Chinese want to avoid triggering disputes with Vietnam over the Spratlys, which would press Vietnam to seek the interference of the U.S." said Leszek Buszynski, international relations professor at the International University of Japan in Niigata. U.S. President Bill Clinton's historic visit to Vietnam in 2000 was set against this backdrop, Buszynski said, even though this subtext of the relationship is never aired in public in either Hanoi or Washington. "Beijing is aware that pressing Vietnam over the Spratlys could trigger this response," he said. "The strategy is to make sure the Vietnamese are friends, so when it comes to the full resolution of the Spratlys, it gets resolved on Chinese terms."

Beijing and Hanoi took until 1991 to normalise their relations in the wake of the 1979 conflict, but the speed with which their economies have intertwined in the past six years has provided even more impetus to the rapprochement. First permitted in 1999, Chinese investment in Vietnam has mushroomed to more than $700 million and bilateral trade between Asia's two fastest-growing economies topped $7 billion in 2004, according to the official Vietnam News.

Projections for the first eight months of this year suggest this figure could rise by as much as 30 percent, consolidating China's position as Vietnam's number one trading partner. In another sign of the warming relationship, the pair's defence ministers signed a deal in Beijing last week to conduct joint naval patrols in the shared Gulf of Tonkin, scene of frequent disputes between fishermen.

By Ed Cropley - Reuters - October 31, 2005.