Viet Nam affirms determination to foster cooperation in the new era

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang and WEF President and CEO Borge Brende, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, will participate in the 16th WEF Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin and carry out official engagements in China.

This marks the third consecutive year that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has attended a WEF meeting in China, demonstrating Viet Nam’s high regard and strong support for the host country. The visit reinforces the positive momentum in the development of the Viet Nam–China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and the Strategic Community of Shared Future.

Viet Nam’s participation in this year’s WEF Tianjin meeting also reaffirms the country’s role, position, and responsibility in promoting peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the world. It underlines Viet Nam’s determination and aspiration to advance cooperation and dialogue, thereby mobilising international resources to lay a strong foundation for a new era of national growth.

Held amid an increasingly complex and unpredictable global political and economic context, the WEF Tianjin 2025 will focus on the theme “Entrepreneurship for a New Era”, featuring five key discussion areas: decoding the global economy (focusing on new growth trends amid geopolitical fragmentation, inflation, and unstable supply chains); China outlook (with discussions on development models based on technology, artificial intelligence (AI), next-generation industry, and market reforms); industrial transformation (covering smart manufacturing, AI, clean energy technologies, and supply chain adaptation); investing in people and the planet (addressing digital skills, climate finance, gender equality in tech, and public-private collaboration); and new energy and materials (focusing on renewables, electricity storage, and green industrial materials).

The cooperative relationship between Viet Nam and the WEF has continued to strengthen, especially following Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s successful participation in the WEF Davos 2025 meeting. Both sides are actively implementing the Viet Nam–WEF Memorandum of Understanding for the 2023–2026 period.

The repeated invitations extended to the Prime Minister to attend WEF activities highlight the forum’s recognition of Viet Nam’s growing international stature and influence. These events offer Viet Nam the opportunity to stay abreast of global economic trends, capitalise on external resources for national development, and maintain strong economic growth momentum.

Attending WEF Tianjin 2025 allows the Vietnamese delegation to promote the country’s image, share experiences, and convey the Party’s and State’s policies, while also creating new cooperation opportunities with governments and enterprises to advance national development goals.

A key highlight of this working trip is Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s bilateral engagements in China. As two close neighbouring countries, with shared mountains and rivers, Viet Nam and China have stood shoulder to shoulder, offering each other invaluable support during past struggles for national liberation and in current efforts for development and modernisation.

On January 18, 1950, the People’s Republic of China became the first country in the world to officially establish diplomatic relations with the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (now the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam). Viet Nam was also the first Southeast Asian country to do so with China.

The Viet Nam–China friendship, cultivated by President Ho Chi Minh, President Mao Zedong, and generations of leaders and peoples from both countries, has become a treasured asset of both nations and continues to bear "sweet fruits".

In recent times, the Viet Nam–China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and Strategic Community of Shared Future has progressed comprehensively and positively, particularly through regular high-level visits. The two countries remain each other’s top economic partners, with bilateral trade reaching 71.3 billion USD in the first four months of 2025. Viet Nam is China’s largest trade partner in ASEAN and its fourth-largest globally. On the tourism front, in the first four months of 2025, Viet Nam welcomed 1.95 million Chinese visitors—25.4% of all international arrivals—making China the leading source of tourists to Viet Nam.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s working visit underscores the high priority that the Party and State of Viet Nam place on Viet Nam–China relations, as well as the commitment to effectively realise shared high-level understandings, particularly those reached during reciprocal visits between the two General Secretaries.

The visit aims to identify focal areas for future cooperation, including advancing specific projects in railway development, science and technology, innovation, digital and green transformation, and smart cities; enhancing the effectiveness of existing cooperation mechanisms in key sectors such as infrastructure, finance–monetary affairs, and maritime collaboration; accelerating the implementation of cross-border economic cooperation zones; promoting China’s market access for Vietnamese exports; and attracting high-quality Chinese investment.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s attendance at the 16th WEF Annual Meeting of the New Champions and his working visit to China represent a robust implementation of Viet Nam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralisation, and proactive, comprehensive, and effective international integration, as set out in the 13th National Party Congress and in Politburo Resolutions No. 34-NQ/TW and No. 59-NQ/TW on international integration in the new context.

May the Prime Minister’s visit be a great success, reinforcing Viet Nam’s rising role, position and international reputation, and demonstrating the country’s responsible contributions at multilateral forums, including the WEF—while further deepening the strategic and sustainable development of the Viet Nam–China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and Strategic Community of Shared Future.

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