On Dec. 12, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, to start a state visit. A welcoming crowd of hundreds of people is waiting to greet Xi at the airport. [Photo by Sheng Jiapeng/China News Service]

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Vo Van Thuong, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, from December 12 to 13, 2023. This was Xi's second visit to Vietnam after six years, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China.

During President Xi's recent visit, Vietnam and China issued a joint statement on further deepening and elevating the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and building a  Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic sifnificance. The joint statement clearly states both sides agree to actively promote cooperation in the next stage, focusing on the following six areas: (1) higher political mutual trust, (2) more practical security cooperation, (3) deeper pragmatic cooperation, (4) a stronger foundation of public opinion, (5) closer multilateral coordination, and (6) better management of differences. These six key areas mutually influence and complement each other, laying the foundation for elevating Vietnam-China relations to a new stage.