This is his first official visit abroad since he was elected general secretary of the VCP in early August, after the demise of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.

To Lam arrived in Beijing to comply with an invitation from the general secretary of the Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese president, Xi Jinping, with whom he is scheduled to meet.

After his election as head of Vietnam’s top leadership, the Chinese president sent him a “congratulations message” in which he expressed his willingness to work together to guide the construction of a community with a shared future.

Xi also called for consolidating political trust and deepening strategic exchanges and substantive cooperation together, so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples and actively contribute to peace and progress of mankind.

Appreciating the importance of the trip, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son stressed that this trip ratifies the willingness and top priority given by both nations to consolidate and develop the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership with a view to building a community of shared future.

‘With the special consideration and close coordination of both sides’ the visit will be a great success and become a milestone that will open a new stage of development for friendly neighborly relations, he predicted.

Thanh stated that after more than 30 years of normalization of their ties and 15 years since the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Partnership framework in 2008, ‘Vietnam and China have made rapid and increasingly deep and comprehensive progress in all fields’.

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