UPDATE - China, Vietnam agree to strengthen ties

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - China and Vietnam on Tuesday announced what Beijing called a “new characterization” of bilateral relations between the two countries.

This came during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.

The visit, first in six years by Xi, came at the invitation of Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said the two sides will work to “build a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance on the basis of deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.”

Xi arrived in Hanoi at around noon on Tuesday.

“China firmly supports Vietnam in advancing its socialist cause,” Xi told the hosts.

“We believe, with the concerted efforts of both sides, the China-Vietnam relationship will enter a new stage of greater political mutual trust, more substantive security cooperation, deeper mutually beneficial cooperation, more solid popular foundation, closer multilateral coordination and collaboration, and more proper management of differences,” said the Chinese president.

It has been 15 years since China and Vietnam established a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

China and Vietnam have overlapping maritime claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Xi said for over 40 years, the Communist Party of Vietnam had “made great strides in leading and uniting the Vietnamese people in socialist development suited to the country’s national conditions.”