Vietnam agreed to build a “truly trustworthy” relationship with China on Friday during a visit to Hanoi by its President Xi Jinping, but at the same time invited Beijing’s old rival Japan for joint mi
Vietnam agreed to build a “truly trustworthy” relationship with China on Friday during a visit to Hanoi by its President Xi Jinping, but at the same time invited Beijing’s old rival Japan for joint military exercises and a visit to a sought-after port.
The diplomatic flurry highlights the fragility of China’s testy ties with its Communist neighbour, and Vietnam’s efforts to diversity its relations through new alliances with states locked in bitter disputes with Beijing over its maritime expansionism.
Vietnam and China’s competing territorial claims mushroomed into a major dispute in 2014, which Mr Xi aimed to settle on a timely visit close to a scheduled shakeup of a Vietnamese Communist Party leadership increasingly being courted by the United States.
Mr Xi was given the red carpet treatment during meetings since Thursday with the top leaders of Vietnam and he told its National Assembly that their joint revolutionary friendship could dispel and survive any “disruptions”.
“Our two parties, countries and peoples should be staunch in their faith, help each other and proceed hand in hand, not allowing anyone to disrupt our pace,” he said.
Both sides agreed on Friday to maintain peace at sea and trust each other, but as Mr Xi prepared to leave, Japan’s defence ministry announced Vietnam had invited it to take part in humanitarian exercises and to bring a warship to its strategic Cam Ranh Bay once construction of a new dock was complete.
Japan and China have their own territorial dispute in the East China Sea, complicating a relationship coloured by Japan’s occupation of parts of China before and during World War II.
Cam Ranh is the jewel in the crown of Vietnam’s military, with an air base once used by the US and Soviet forces and a deep water bay home to its modern, Russian-built submarines.
