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© Reuters
Vietnam’s new leader To Lin is making his first foreign trip to China. The three-day event comes two weeks after he assumed the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country’s top leadership position, BTA reported.
Since May, Lam has also held the largely ceremonial title of president. Lam succeeds Nguyen Phu Chong, who died on July 19 after 13 years as secretary-general.
Yu Xiangdong, director of the Institute of Vietnam Studies at China Central University, wrote in the Global Times yesterday that the new leader is expected to continue his predecessor’s strategy of balancing China-US-Russia relations.
Chinese state media said Lam arrived this morning in Guangzhou, an industrial and export hub near Hong Kong. Her plans included visiting sites in the southern Chinese city where former Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh also lived, the state-run Global Times reported.
During his visit, Du Lin will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials.
Lin Xiangdong said in the article: “Carrie Lam chose China as her first destination after taking office, which shows that Vietnam attaches great importance to its relations with China. But at the same time, based on past experience, it will never abandon the United States.”
Despite their long relationship as one-party communist states, Vietnam and China have clashed repeatedly over territory in the South China Sea. A Vietnamese coast guard ship recently took part in joint exercises with the Philippines, which has had several violent clashes with China over disputed territory in the same waters. In 1979, China briefly invaded parts of North Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has benefited from investments by Chinese manufacturers that have moved production to the country, in part to circumvent U.S. restrictions on Chinese solar panels and other types of exports, the AP noted.
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