The action would reaffiliate Seoul’s partnership with Beijing, both of which are ruled by communism; while they compete to set boundaries occasionally in the Spratly Islands, an area in the South China Sea that Beijing claims almost entirely as part of its territory, offending several countries in the region, both neighbors have sound economic and trade relations.
Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is to visit China next week to attend the third China-Association Party talks since his appointment in August as the head of the ruling Communist Party, said three Vietnamese officials.
This visit demonstrates the good economic and trade cooperation between two socialist neighboring states with overlapping territorial claims at times in the South China Sea—a strategic seaway that China has virtually militarized by asserting sovereignty over nearly 90% of the area as regards this sea, much as this irks several ASEAN member states.
Lam, who is also the state president of the Southeast Asian nation, is planning to arrive in China on Aug. 18. He will hold talks with President Xi Jinping and other leaders in the next two days, two Vietnamese officials and a Hanoi-based diplomat said, asking not to be named because the visit is not public yet.
The Chinese and Vietnamese foreign ministries did not respond to comment requests. Since May Lam, 67, has been state president, as planned, he has also traveled through Laos and Cambodia.
He also accompanied Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who came to Hanoi in June and spoke to him by phone last week after Putin was made head of the party.
It would be the first time he traveled out of the country after he assumed the party chief position on August 3 this year following the death of Nguyen Phu Trong, the veteran general secretary.
