Vietnam Won't Join Front vs China

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has told China his country would not enter an alliance to confront Beijing before he met US Vice-President Kamala Harris this week, Mimi Lau reported for the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Photo Insert: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivering remarks at the 26th International Conference on the Future of Asia.

In a meeting on Tuesday with Xiong Bo, the Chinese envoy to Hanoi, Pham said Vietnam had always maintained an independent foreign policy that prioritized self-reliance, multilateralism, and diversification of ties, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Pham said Vietnam would not ally with one country to fight another, and wished to enhance political trust with China, promote exchange and uphold cooperation. He also said the two nations should join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in stepping up the slow-moving negotiations for a code of conduct on the disputed South China Sea (SCS).

“The two sides need to strive to maintain peace and stability, satisfactorily settle disagreements at sea in the spirit of high-level common perceptions,” Pham was quoted as saying.

Xiong said during the meeting that the two communist nations had the same political system and beliefs. He told Pham that China was willing to work with Vietnam and stick to the two countries’ high-level strategic directive to further develop ties, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

The envoy said the telephone conversations that Chinese President Xi Jinping had earlier this year with Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc had established sound political trust between the neighbors.

Xiong also asked for Vietnam’s support in opposing what China says is the “politicization” of COVID-19 origin investigations.

Beijing has rejected the World Health Organization’s proposal for a new investigation that was to include revisiting the theory that the coronavirus came from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, where the virus was first reported in December 2019.

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