On 6 March 2024, Secretary General Shi Zhongjun of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) met with Assistant Minister Nguyen Minh Vu of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam in Hanoi.
Secretary General Shi said that ASEAN and China account for one third of the population and one fourth of the total GDP of the world. ASEAN-China relations have been growing and thriving in recent years and become one of the most vibrant and productive partnerships among all dialogue partners of ASEAN, not only contributing to the common prosperity and modernization in this region, but also bearing on ensuring lasting peace, sustained development and quality recovery of the world at large. As an important member of ASEAN, Vietnam has witnessed rapid development and contributed a lot to the regional prosperity. The ACC looks forward to strengthening all-round cooperation with the Ministry and the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing towards a better and stronger growth of ASEAN-China comprehensive strategic partnership as well as a flourishing Vietnam-China partnership.
Assistant Minister Nguyen emphasized the importance to further consolidate and enrich the comprehensive strategic partnership between ASEAN and China, as well as between Vietnam and China. He appreciated the constructive role of the ACC in promoting the aforesaid partnerships and thanked the ACC for leading a business delegation to Vietnam tapping cooperation potentials. He looks forward to the ACC continuing to promote trade and investment cooperation by leveraging on the full implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and progress made in the negotiation of Version 3.0 of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), explore new domains of cooperation such as digital economy, e-commerce, green economy and sustainable development, and enhance cooperation related to tourism, education and culture under the framework of ASEAN-China Year of People-to-people Exchanges, so as to further advance ASEAN-China and Vietnam-China relations in a substantive and productive manner.