On September 6, 2011, the fifth meeting of the Guiding Committee for China-Vietnam Bilateral Cooperation was held in Hanoi, Vietnam. Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan co-chaired the meeting as chairs of the Chinese and Viennese sides respectively.
Dai pointed out China-Vietnam relations have firm historical, political and realistic foundations. Over the past 20 years, the two sides have made joint efforts to push for all-round, in-depth development of bilateral ties for the benefit of both peoples and contributed to regional peace, stability and prosperity. The Guiding Committee for China-Vietnam Bilateral Cooperation, as an important mechanism of building political trust and promoting pragmatic cooperation, has played a key role in pushing forward bilateral ties.
Dai said in the new situation, China and Vietnam should view and develop bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective, adhere to the principle of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and common development and always grasp the overall situation of bilateral relations. Both sides should also strive to consolidate traditional friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, keep closer humanities exchanges and increase mutual understanding. He urged both sides to attach great importance to and properly handle sensitive issues in bilateral ties and push forward the ties along the right track.
Nguyen Thien Nhan said the two countries share a lot of common interests and it is a top priority of Vietnam's foreign policy to develop good-neighborly and friendly relations with China. Vietnam is ready to work with China to proceed from the overall situation of bilateral ties, consolidate traditional friendship and develop good-neighborly friendly relations as each other's good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners under the guiding principle of long-term stability, forward looking, good-neighborly friendship and comprehensive cooperation. Both sides should also enhance high-level exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas, push for the settlement of the issues existing in bilateral ties and promote Vietnam-China comprehensive partnership of strategic cooperation to a new level.
Both sides reviewed the progress of pragmatic cooperation over the past year and raised plans and proposals on advancing cooperation for the next stage. They agreed to further enhance cooperation on inter-party exchanges, law enforcement, economy, trade, agriculture, science, education, culture and health as well as at local levels and push forward bilateral comprehensive partnership of strategic cooperation.
Both sides pledged to strengthen communication and coordination in regional affairs to push for new progress of China-ASEAN relations and promote regional peace, stability and prosperity.
On the South China Sea issue, both sides emphasized they should bear in mind the overall development of China-Vietnam friendship, enhance in-depth communication, effectively control differences, properly handle sensitive issues and jointly safeguard stability in the South China Sea.
The Chinese officials from the Foreign Ministry, International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, Ministry of Defense, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and other ministries and commissions, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hainan and other provinces and autonomous regions, and the Vietnamese officials from party and government departments as well as military and civilian sectors attended the meeting. Prior to the meeting, secretary generals of the Chinese and Vietnamese sides of the Guiding Committee held a meeting and relevant departments and localities of the two countries held counterpart talks respectively.