Vietnamese President To Lam said that his country would regard developing relations with China as its objective need, strategic choice and top priority.
He also said that the country is willing to enhance the level of cooperation in various areas, including trade, investment, railways and other infrastructure.
This came as he met with Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Vietnamese President To Lam’s four-day trip to China, which began on Tuesday, is his first overseas trip since he was elected last week. That signaled Lam’s foreign policy priorities and stronger ties between the two Communist nations.
Both leaders attended a signing ceremony of cooperation documents, covering areas ranging from inter-party exchanges and public security to technology and people’s livelihoods.
Lam, Vietnam’s Communist Party General-Secretary, was elected last week as President for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state. The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes the power structures in China and neighboring Laos.
Lam mentioned boosting investment and technology transfer, and balancing trade ties for deeper economic integration. Trade and investment are the cornerstone of China’s and Vietnam’s relations, with deeply integrated supply chains that made Beijing Hanoi’s largest trading partner, and Vietnam the top ASEAN partner for China.
China said that it will strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and internet-related industries, while Xi assured that more Vietnamese products were welcome to the Chinese market.
Vietnam’s trade deficit with China reached $33.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026, rising 34.4% from a year ago, according to official data. China and Vietnam have historically oscillated between conflict and cooperation over centuries but have drawn closer in recent years, even as they remain at odds over maritime boundaries in the South China Sea.
The Southeast Asian nation has also been leaning towards a governance model that increasingly mirrors China’s, with tightening state oversight while embracing Chinese technology and regulation.Even the leadership structure appears resemblant when Lam consolidated authority earlier this month, breaking away from the country’s traditional collective leadership system
Xi Calls For Prioritizing Infrastructure Connectivity
On his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for prioritizing infrastructure connectivity with Vietnam and more cooperation on emerging fields like artificial intelligence and semiconductors during his meeting with Vietnam’s newly elected President.
Chinese state broadcaster reported that Xi said that defending the socialist system and the Communist Party’s ruling position is the greatest common strategic interest between the two parties during their meeting. He also urged both sides to firmly uphold confidence in their paths and systems and persist in reform without changing direction.
Xi also told his Vietnamese counterpart that China and Vietnam should maintain high strategic clarity and prioritise political security.
He asserted that China and Vietnam should uphold the principles of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, and work together to oppose unilateralism and protectionism, adding that both sides should safeguard the global free trade system and keep the industrial and supply chains stable and unimpeded.
In Vietnam, wary attitudes towards China have softened while tension with the U.S. rose after Trump targeted Hanoi with some of the highest U.S. tariffs imposed in Southeast Asia last year.
Gregory Poling from the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), opined that Lam’s visit highlights how Vietnam is recalibrating its ties with the US and China. Poling, who leads CSIS’ Southeast Asia program, said that Vietnam trusts neither major power but still needs to work with both. “In the new world of U.S. revisionism, keeping China at arm’s length in favour of U.S. investment or U.S. preferred standards just isn’t seen as viable anymore,” Poling said.
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