Beijing - The head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Nong
Duc Manh, on Friday agreed with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao
that the two parties should 'deepen exchanges' and expand trade.
Manh and Hu agreed that the two communist parties should share
their experiences of managing a nation and a party, and exchange
ideas on socialist theory, state-run China Central Television said.
Hu urged China and Vietnam to expand economic and trade links, and
cooperate more in fields such as culture, science and agriculture.
They should handle any differences through negotiations, he said.
Hu and Manh attended the signing of several cooperation agreements
after their talks, the broadcaster said without giving details.
The official Xinhua news agency said Manh was also scheduled to
meet Wu Bangguo, the official number two in China's Communist Party,
and Premier Wen Jiabao, who ranks number three in the party, during a
previously unannounced four-day visit.
Meetings between leaders of communist neighbours China and Vietnam
are normally presented as party-to-party rather than state-to-state.
'The visit is aimed at creating a new driving force for continuous
development of Vietnam-China relations,' the agency quoted Vietnamese
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem, who travelled to China with
Manh, as saying earlier.
Manh handed Chinese officials in Beijing a list of relief
materials for survivors of the recent earthquake in the south-western
province of Sichuan, the agency said.
The two batches of Vietnamese relief materials weighed a total of
15 tons and included 150 tents and 10,000 boxes of milk powder, the
agency said.
China and Vietnam fought a brief but violent border war in 1979.
Armed skirmishes have broken out between them as recently as 1988,
when they fought a brief naval battle over the disputed Spratly
Islands in the South China Sea.
But economic and diplomatic ties have gradually improved over the
last decade.
'In the new era, the relations between China and Vietnam develop
unceasingly with frequent visits of top leaders of the two
countries,' the Xinhua report said.
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