Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Monday in his first overseas trip of the year as part of an effort to cement stronger strategic ties in Southeast Asia amid an escalating trade war with the US.
“I look forward to using this visit as an opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views with Vietnamese leaders on the overall, strategic and directional issues of relations between the two parties and the two countries, as well as international and regional issues of common concern,” Xi said in prepared remarks soon after his arrival.
He was received at the airport by senior Vietnamese officials including President Luong Cuong. Xi was accompanied on the trip by Cai Qi, his chief of staff who ranks No 5 in the Politburo, as well as Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to state news agency Xinhua. Defence Minister Dong Jun and commerce minister Wang Wentao were also in the Chinese delegation, according to Vietnam News Agency.
The tour comes as Beijing and Washington face off in a bitter tariff war, with US President Donald Trump raising duties on Chinese imports up to 145 per cent since he returned to office, heightening fears that the world’s two largest economies will decouple.
Vietnam, which is one of the key routes for Chinese exports to reach the US, was last week hit with one of the highest US tariffs – 46 per cent. Hanoi and Washington agreed to negotiate after Trump announced a 90-day pause in the levies on all countries except China.
In an article published on Monday in Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Xi called for greater collaboration among developing countries to promote “an equal and orderly multipolar world”.
