Nguyen Phu Trong to confront and resolve concrete issues in Beijing trip
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong will arrive in Beijing Thursday, kicking off a four-day official visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.
The trip is Nguyen's first official visit to China after he was re-elected as the general secretary of the CPV in January 2016, and in this trip he is expected to seek a closer bilateral relationship with China and reach more consensus in international affairs at a time in which the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing tremendous tension, analysts said.
The trip will be held at a time when the future of U.S. South China Sea policy is unclear, following the election of Donald Trump as president.
It will be the most important visit Nguyen has yet made during his second term as the CPV general secretary. And it's a trip with a special purpose, according to Zhuang Guotu, dean of the School for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University.
"In the past two months, tensions have ratcheted up in the Asia-Pacific region and around the globe, and this will deeply influence the relations between Vietnam and China, the U.S., and the Southeast Asian nations. So in this trip, Nguyen is expected to ascertain the actual situation of China and find a way of developing bilateral relations that both sides can accept," said Zhuang.
He is also likely hoping to confront and resolve some concrete issues, such as trade, investment and the South China Sea, said Zhuang.
