Chinese premier arrives in Hanoi for Vietnam visit

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang landed here Sunday for an official visit to Vietnam aimed at further promoting the development of bilateral relations.

During his stay, Li will hold talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, and the two sides are expected to release and sign multiple cooperation documents and agreements.

In addition, Li is scheduled to meet with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong, President Truong Tan Sang and Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Sinh Hung.

Li's visit will help push forward China-Vietnam cooperation along three main lines: maritime cooperation, onshore cooperation and financial cooperation, according to Qu Xing, president of the China Institute of International Studies.

Maritime cooperation covers such areas as environmental protection and safety of navigation, onshore cooperation pertains to law enforcement, interconnectivity and infrastructure, while financial cooperation is aimed at jointly coping with the impact of the international financial crisis, he added.

In a joint statement issued in June during the Vietnamese president's China visit, the two countries vowed to strive for a balanced growth of bilateral trade and achieve in advance the goal of raising their trade volume to 60 billion U.S. dollars by 2015. The figure was more than 50 billion dollars last year.

As regards the outstanding disputes between them in the South China Sea, leaders of the two countries have agreed to handle them in a proper way and prevent them from turning the China-Vietnam relationship away from the right course.

Vietnam is the last leg of Li's first Southeast Asia tour as premier, which has taken him to Brunei and Thailand. While in Brunei, he attended a series of East Asian leaders' meetings and expounded China's policy on regional cooperation and development.