Xi says China, Vietnam must oppose attempt to ‘mess up Asia-Pacific’

HANOI: China and Vietnam agreed to step up co-operation on security matters in their move towards becoming a community with a “shared future”, they said on Wednesday, as Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a visit to Hanoi.

On Xi’s two-day trip, the Communist-ruled neighbours, close in economic areas but at odds over boundaries in the South China Sea, signed dozens of co-operation pacts and agreed to set up more hotlines to defuse any emergencies in the contested waters.

In a 16-page joint statement, the countries, which share a millennia-long history of conflict, vowed to work more closely to strengthen defence industry ties and intelligence exchanges.

They said their aim was partly to avert the risk of what they called a “colour revolution” promoted by hostile forces, using a term for popular uprisings that have shaken former Communist nations.

They “announced the establishment of a strategic China-Vietnam community of ‘shared future’ to promote the upgrading of China-Vietnam relations,” Xi told the chairman of Vietnam’s parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, at a meeting earlier.

The decision was a historic milestone, and joining such a community was a “strategic” choice, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said when he met Xi, who was making his first visit this year to an Asian nation.