Xi looks to strengthen Vietnam ties after Biden visit

HANOI: China´s President Xi Jinping will arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday on a mission to strengthen relations, just months after Washington and Hanoi upgraded their diplomatic ties.

China and Vietnam have a border in common, as well as close economic ties and ruling communist parties, but Xi´s two-day trip will be his first visit to the country in six years.

It comes hot on the heels of US President Joe Biden´s stopover in Hanoi in September, when he sought to shore up support against Beijing´s growing influence in the region. “From China´s perspective, the visit is to emphasise that it has not lost Vietnam to the rival camp,” said Huong Le Thu, Deputy Director of the Asia Programme at the International Crisis Group.

“For Vietnam, it represents its successful ´bamboo diplomacy´, in which it is able to manoeuvre between the competing great powers without being forced to take one side over another,” she told AFP. After an official welcome at the presidential palace on Tuesday, Xi will hold talks with Nguyen Phu Trong, the leader of Vietnam´s ruling communist party.