China to Enhance Exchanges with Vietnam: Li Peng

China to Enhance Exchanges with Vietnam: Li Peng

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China's National People's Congress (NPC) will enhance exchanges with the Vietnamese National Assembly, Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, told his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Van An in Hanoi on Friday.

"The exchanges and co-operation between parliaments of the two countries are an important part in the Sino-Vietnamese relations," said Li in his talks with An at the Presidential Palace of Vietnam.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is visiting Vietnam at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Standing Committee of the Vietnamese National Assembly.

Li suggested that special committees of the NPC and the Vietnamese Congress have conducted in-depth discussions in various fields including legal construction in a down-to-earth manner, established a mechanism of exchange and consultation between their staff and experts, exchanged information and strengthened their co- operation in international and regional parliamentary organizations.

Nguyen Van An, chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, said the relations between parliaments of the two countries have made great progress thanks to their frequent exchanges of visits and their exchanges in the legislative field.

He said such exchanges and co-operation should be deepened and enhanced.

Looking back into the past decade, Li said, the traditional friendship and co-operation between the two countries have been restored rapidly and achieved overall development.

China and Vietnam normalized their bilateral relations in 1991.

The exchange of visits and frequent consultations on major issues between leaders of the two countries have played an irreplaceable role in promoting bilateral relations, Li said.

The two countries have solved their disputes over land borders and the delimitation problem in the Beibu Gulf.

A joint declaration concerning the overall co-operation between the two countries in the new century, signed at the end of last year, is a landmark signifying that the bilateral relations have entered a new phase, Li said.