Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visit border landmark 1369 installed on October 14, 2010. (Photo: VGP)

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh made the proposal at a ceremony held in Vietnam’s Mong Cai city on August 23 to mark 20 years of the signing of the Vietnam-China Land Border Treaty.

He spoke highly of the signing of the treaty in 2009, as well as the two countries’ efforts to complete the border delimitation and demarcation in 2008 and implement three legal documents on land borders as of 2010.

The three legal documents are the Protocol on Border Demarcation and Marker Planting, the Agreement on Border Management, and the Agreement on Border Gates and Border Gate Management.

This was the first time in history that the two independent and sovereign countries have defined a land border in a scientific and accurate manner with a formal and modern boundary system established, putting an end to a 36-year process of planning negotiations and settling land border issues between the two countries, Minh noted.

Delivering a speech at the event, Vietnamese Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh wants both countries to perfect cooperation mechanisms for land border management.

He went on to say that the two sides have persisted with the principles and motto of fairness and mutual respect, paying due attention to each other’s interests on the basis of agreed legal documents, international law and principles of dealing with specific problems.

Deputy Prime Minister Minh affirmed that the Party, State and people of Vietnam attach great importance to maintaining friendly and neighbourly relations with, and are ready to join China to further deepen the comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership between the two countries.

Both sides need to further strengthen coordination in border management, bring into full play the role of the Vietnam-China Land Border Joint Committee, and strictly implement the three legal documents on the Vietnam-China land border, while seeking to perfect cooperation mechanisms and legal bases for their border management, Minh emphasized.

Both sides also need to promote cooperation in the border area to achieve substantial results, especially in the fields of economics, trade, tourism, as well as to increase friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries’ border localities.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hopes the reasonable settlement of land border issues will create the prerequisite for handling sea-related issues

For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reviewed major milestones in the two countries’ relations in recent times, and said given the complicated situation globally, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Vietnam need to work closely together to further promote the comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership between the two countries.

He echoed Minh’s view that both countries need to bring into full play the role of the Vietnam-China Land Border Joint Committee to settle all problems that arise and to improve border management efficiency.

The reasonable settlement of land border issues and those relating to the Gulf of Tonkin will be a valuable experience to solve problems at sea, Wang said.

Following the event, the two top diplomats visited a photo exhibition highlighting the process of land border delimitation and demarcation between Vietnam and China. They also dropped into the President Ho Chi Minh Memorial House in Mong Cai city, visited and painted the pair of border landmarks 1369 (1) and 1369 (2), the first of its kind installed on the Vietnam-China land border on October 14, 2010.

Later the two diplomats had talks to discuss measures to boost Vietnam-China relations. They also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.