Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said that the relationship between China and Vietnam has witnessed substantial progress.
Speaking during a joint press conference with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung here Sunday, Li said China and Vietnam have made a breakthrough in bilateral cooperation after pledging to set up in parallel three joint work groups to advance maritime, onshore and financial cooperation.
He also noted that he and Prime Minister Dung, in their talks held earlier, reached broad consensus and achieved fruitful results on deepening China-Vietnam cooperation in various areas, the China Daily reported.
The two sides agreed to continue to enhance political mutual trust, maintain high-level exchanges, maximize common interests and minimize divergences, and safeguard peace and stability of the South China Sea, he said.
On maritime cooperation, Li called on the two sides to achieve substantial progress within the year in their joint development in waters out of the mouth of the Beibu Bay, a semi-enclosed sea whose delimitation remains under negotiation between China and Vietnam.
The Chinese leader also called on the two countries to study the possibilities of joint development of a wider area of the sea.
He noted that by doing so, China and Vietnam would demonstrate to the world about having the capability and the wisdom to safeguard peace in the South China Sea, expand their common interests and reduce divergences.
Driving lessons from the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s, both sides vowed to build a financial security network to fend off potential risks for their economic stability.
Li arrived here earlier in the day for the last leg of his first Southeast Asia tour as premier, which has taken him to Brunei and Thailand.
