Xi arrives in Vietnam capital after APEC Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here on Sunday for a state visit after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Vietnam's Da Nang city.

Xi will be holding talks in Hanoi with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), Nguyen Phu Trong and is expected to meet his counterpart Tran Dai Quang and the Chairperson of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

The visit comes on the heels of the 19th CPC National Congress and is reciprocal for previous visits to China by Trong and Quang, earlier this year.

Trong made a four-day official visit to China in January, while Quang paid a state visit in May and attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

"The leaders of the two countries will have in-depth talks on promoting the bilateral relations between the two countries under the new circumstances," said Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam, Hong Xiaoyong.

In 2016, bilateral trade volume reached $98.23 billion. The figure is expected to reach $100 billion by the end of 2017.

China invested a total of $823.6 million in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2017, becoming the third largest foreign direct investor of the country.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is the first leg of Xi's two-nation Asia tour, which will also take him to Laos on Monday.

--IANS

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