Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay an official visit to Vietnam from Oct. 31-Nov. 2, which is expected to boost the two countries' comprehensive cooperation, especially on economy, trade and investment, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

The trip, a follow-up to the visit to China by Vietnamese State President Tran Duc Luong in July, is one of many activities to enhance the bilateral ties, which also reflect Vietnam's foreign policy which gives priorities to developing relations with neighboring countries.

The China-Vietnam cooperative ties have continued to be consolidated and developed under the principle of "long-term stability, future orientation, good-neighborly friendship and all- round cooperation" set by the two countries' party leaders. The two sides have regularly exchanged visits of delegations at all levels since the bilateral relations were normalized in November 1991.

They have so far signed 44 agreements and state-level documents, including the Beibu Gulf demarcation treaty, the land border demarcation agreement and the fishery cooperation agreement, bringing about many practical benefits for the two peoples.

Besides closer political relations, trade and economic relations have gained encouraging results with China having become Vietnam's biggest trade partner. Their bilateral trade, which stood at 6.74 billion US dollars in 2004, up 45.3 percent against 2003, is expected to reach 8 billion dollars this year. At a recent meeting of the China-Vietnam Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation, the two sides agreed to boost their economic and trade cooperation, and fulfill the two-way trade target of 15 billion dollars by 2010.

While promoting relations with China, Vietnam has also attached importance to consolidating and expanding special relations and all-round cooperation with Laos, especially in the political economic field. During the official visit to Laos by Nong Duc Manh in March, the two sides agreed to boost political cooperation, maintaining regular exchanges of visits of high-ranking officials as well as people from different sectors, organizations and localities.

Vietnam has actively expanded economic ties with Cambodia, and cooperated with the neighboring country in dealing with security, border and territorial issues under the framework of regional and international organizations.

After the trip to Cambodia by Nong Duc Manh in March, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen paid an official visit to Vietnam early this month. During Hun Sen's visit, the two sides signed a supplement treaty to the border agreement inked in 1985. (More)

Source: Xinhua