On Monday, Xi Jinping arrived in Hanoi to pay a state visit to Vietnam, mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage an US$8 billion rail project to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China. China is the largest trading partner of Vietnam, and one of its biggest foreign investors; Vietnam, on the other hand, has become an important link in the international supply chain, a manufacturing powerhouse and a key route for Chinese exports. Xi, and his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam, witnessed the signing of dozens of agreements covering areas such as connectivity, artificial intelligence, customs inspection, agricultural product trade, culture and sports, people's livelihood, human resources development, and media. ▪️At a time when the region faces a potential disruption of global trade due to Trump's tariffs, Xi urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment”.
He also reiterated that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere.” The message certainly resonated with Vietnam: the US is its biggest export market and Trump has recently imposed a 46 per cent tariff on Vietnamese goods.
Today Xi Jinping will continue his South-East Asia tour by visiting Malaysia and later Cambodia. @LauraRuHK
