HANOI: China and Vietnam should oppose any “attempt to mess up Asia-Pacific”, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday during a trip to Hanoi, as Beijing seeks to counter expanding US influence with the communist nation.

The trip is Xi’s first to neighbouring Vietnam in six years, and the two nations committed to deeper ties and signed more than 30 agreements, including a pledge to develop rail links between Vietnam and China.

The two-day visit comes after Hanoi upgraded diplomatic ties with Washington when US President Joe Biden visited in September. Xi said China and Vietnam “should be vigilant against and oppose any attempt to mess up Asia-Pacific”, according to Xinhua, China’s official state news agency.

“We should strengthen coordination and cooperation in international affairs, and jointly maintain a sound external environment,” Xi said. Biden’s visit was part of US efforts around the world to contain China’s rising economic power — and to secure supplies of crucial materials needed for high-tech manufacturing.

China and Vietnam said in a joint statement they would “continue to deepen and increase bilateral relations”.

They agreed to build a “community with a shared future”, and said the visit was a “historic landmark in bilateral ties… contributing to peace and stability and development in the region and the world”. Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States. It shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea, but it also has close economic ties with China.

Xi said on Wednesday that China was ready to work with Vietnam to “find a long-term solution to maritime issues” and help reach a “substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the South China Sea”, according to Xinhua.

On Wednesday, Xi laid a wreath at the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh and met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Vo Van Thuong.

Chinh said Vietnam was committed to “supporting China to strongly develop, promoting its role as a major country with important contributions to the international community, supporting initiatives by comrade Xi Jinping for peace, cooperation and development in the world”.In a 16-page joint statement, the countries, which share a millennia-long history of conflict, vowed to work more closely to strengthen defence industry ties and intelligence exchanges.

They said their aim was partly to avert the risk of what they called a “colour revolution” promoted by hostile forces, using a term for popular uprisings that have shaken former Communist nations.

They “announced the establishment of a strategic China-Vietnam community of ‘shared future’ to promote the upgrading of China-Vietnam relations,” Xi told the chairman of Vietnam’s parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, at a meeting earlier.

The decision was a historic milestone, and joining such a community was a “strategic” choice, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said when he met Xi, who was making his first visit this year to an Asian nation. No pact was unveiled on rare earths, for example, although Xi, in an article in a Vietnamese state newspaper, urged broader co-operation on critical minerals.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023