Xi wraps up Vietnam visit after harvesting fruitful outcomes

HANOI - After achieving fruitful outcomes along with the Vietnamese leaders, President Xi Jinping wrapped up his first state visit to Vietnam and left for Singapore Friday.

Xi's 27-hour stay in Hanoi seems to be very brief but yields landmark achievements.

"The visit leaves me a deep impression and proves to be a great success," said the Chinese president when meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart.

Fruitful visit

Vietnam gave a rare high-profile welcome to Xi's visit, the first of its kind since Xi taking office.

Upon his arrival, Xi received a red-carpet welcome with a 21-gun salute, a ceremony Vietnam has suspended for years. Throughout Xi's visit, the Vietnam's top leaders held meetings with him, and invited the distinguished guest to banquet, luncheon and breakfast as well as to deliver a speech at the country's parliament.

"The high-level reception showcases that the Vietnamese side attaches great importance to President Xi's visit as well as the China-Vietnam relations," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin.

"The visit has met the goal of consolidating traditional friendship, furthering strategic coordination and promoting pragmatic cooperation," Xi told Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

"We have reached a series of consensus on pragmatic cooperation in various fields," said Xi.

The consensus mentioned was partly embodied in a joint communique, which outlined future cooperation.

The two sides also signed a number of cooperation documents covering such fields as party-to-party exchanges, transportation, tourism, production capacity, culture, railway, energy, finance and local affairs, after talks between Xi and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee.

When summarizing the outcomes, Liu said the two sides have agreed on party-to-party exchanges, defense and security cooperation, alignment of development strategies and people-to-people exchanges.

Tran Cong Truc, former head of the Vietnamese government's border committee, said the two countries, in the next step, should continue to further implement the agreements.

"The most important thing is that the two sides must maintain serious, goodwill and constructive attitude while implementing these issues," said Truc.