Ambassador Hung Ba: General Secretary Xi Jinping misses and hopes to meet General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Hung Ba shared that the two General Secretaries have had a relationship since 12 years ago, always maintaining exchanges in many forms. This visit to Vietnam by Mr. Xi Jinping will witness a special reunion of the two leaders.

Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Hung Ba answers the press on the afternoon of December 10 in Hanoi - Photo: NGUYEN KHANH

On the afternoon of December 10, ahead of the state visit to Vietnam by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Hung Ba met with a number of Vietnamese press agencies in Hanoi.

Vietnam - China relations are extremely rare in the world.

At the meeting, Mr. Hung Ba answered 10 questions about the significance of the upcoming visit, the areas that the leaders of the two sides will discuss and cooperate.

He also shared about the close friendship between the leaders of Vietnam and China, including the 12th year of relationship between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping.

According to Ambassador Hung Ba, the relationship between the two Parties and two countries of Vietnam and China is "very special and can be said to be very rare in the world".

He explained that both countries are socialist countries led by the Communist Party, are two countries connected by mountains and rivers, and are two friendly neighboring countries.

The Chinese Ambassador then recalled the achievements and progress of the bilateral relationship in recent times, especially after the historic visit to China by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in late October and early November 2022.

According to Mr. Hung Ba, the visit of General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping this time will be an opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to maintain strategic exchanges and contacts, and determine directions to further strengthen bilateral relations in the spirit of "new situation, new direction, new prospects, new momentum".

It is expected that during the visit, the two sides will also sign dozens of cooperation documents in many fields, contributing to enhancing political trust and expanding substantive cooperation to bring benefits to the people of the two countries, the region and the world.

When asked about his greatest impression during the past five years in Vietnam, Ambassador Hung Ba recalled his trip with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the Huu Nghi - Huu Nghi Quan border gate between Vietnam and China last August.

He said that during that trip, the General Secretary planted a "friendship" tree and recalled the history of the name of this border gate.

The head of the Communist Party of Vietnam also recalled that in the past, President Ho Chi Minh once passed through this border gate to visit China and it was he who proposed the name "Friendship - Friendship Pass".

General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping welcomes General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Beijing in October 2022 - Photo: VNA

Mr. Xi Jinping is looking forward to meeting the General Secretary.

Recalling the relationship between the leaders of the two countries, Ambassador Hung Ba especially shared the affection between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping.

The two leaders first met in 2011 when General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited China.

Two months after this visit, Mr. Xi Jinping, then Vice President of China, visited Vietnam and paid a visit to the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Since then, the two leaders have regularly held talks, held phone calls, and exchanged letters and telegrams many times on important political events of each side.

Of which, General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping has had seven phone calls with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong since becoming the head of the Chinese Party and State.

According to Ambassador Hung Ba, it can be said that the exchanges between the two General Secretaries were important ideological and strategic exchanges between two contemporary Marxist politicians, theorists, and strategists, and played a decisive guiding role in the development of relations between the two Parties and two countries.

"I remember one time General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong shared that every time he talked with General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping, the more he talked, the more he felt that he had a lot in common and that there was a lot to discuss together. That made me feel very touched," Mr. Hung Ba expressed.

The Chinese Ambassador affirmed that the current friendly relationship between the two countries was built and nurtured by President Ho Chi Minh and Chinese President Mao Zedong, and is a valuable common asset of the two Parties and two countries.

"I believe that the warm, friendly and comradely relationship between General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is also a valuable common asset of the two countries," Mr. Hung Ba shared.

This visit by General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping is an event that both General Secretaries "are looking forward to, because they miss each other very much and hope to meet soon," according to the Chinese ambassador.

For that reason, Mr. Hung Ba believes that this visit "will be full of friendship and achieve many rich results".

China is willing to provide non-refundable aid for railway connection.

Durian is one of the agricultural products that has seen strong growth in exports to China - Photo: T.VY

When asked about the significance of the Vietnam-China bilateral relationship to the region and the world, Ambassador Hung Ba said that this visit will receive special attention from the international community.

According to him, the relationship between the two countries has more opportunities than challenges, in which the biggest opportunity is mutual political trust, the need for increasingly expanding cooperation, and cultural similarities...

The Chinese Ambassador affirmed that China does not pursue or have a policy of trade surplus with Vietnam.

According to him, the current trade balance is the result of international industrial division and market, not intentional from China.

Citing data from the General Administration of Customs of China, Mr. Hung Ba said that exports from Vietnam to China in the past 11 months increased compared to the same period last year, while imports decreased.

He affirmed that China is always ready to open its doors to import goods from Vietnam, especially agricultural products.

Typically, Vietnamese durian is very popular in China, with import turnover reaching nearly 2 billion USD in just the first 10 months of 2023.

In the coming time, China will speed up procedures to import fresh coconuts from Vietnam, considering this another promising agricultural product.

Cargo train between China and Vietnam in August 2023 - Photo: THX

"I think both our countries also need to increase connectivity and communication by road, sea, air as well as on the Internet," Mr. Hung Ba raised the issue.

According to the Chinese ambassador, the top priority and most important thing is that the two sides need to expand and strengthen cooperation on transport infrastructure, such as railways and highways.

China is currently promoting the construction of three trans-Asian railway lines, including the western, central and eastern lines. Of these, the eastern line passing through Vietnam will be the line with the greatest demand and the best construction conditions.

He affirmed that China is willing to provide non-refundable aid for Vietnam to upgrade and renovate the route from Guangxi to Hanoi and speed up the planning of construction of a number of other railway projects such as Hekou (Yunnan province, China) - Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong.

"If the above projects are completed, the level of connectivity between the two countries will be raised, and certainly the efficiency of customs clearance and transportation of goods between the two countries will be improved, and there will be no congestion of goods at the border," Mr. Hung Ba emphasized.

At the same time, once completed, these railways will pave the way for Vietnamese goods to travel further into the Central Asian region via China.

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