Engaging in friendly cooperation is at the core of the China-Vietnam relationship, a senior Vietnamese diplomat told China Daily.

Vietnamese Ambassador to China Nguyen Van Tho said Hanoi vows to seek enduring and stable ties with Beijing and strengthen cooperation in order to diversify the strategic partnership.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang started a three-day state visit to China on Wednesday as a guest of President Xi Jinping.

In May, Premier Li Keqiang told visiting Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan in Beijing that forging good bilateral relations is the joint wish of the people of the two countries, but this "needs good conditions".

The ambassador said Vietnam will, as always, highly value its relations with China and make them a top priority.

"This not only serves the long-term interests of the Vietnamese nation, it also stems from the sincere wishes of the Vietnamese people," Tho said.

However, Beijing's ties with Hanoi have been overshadowed by maritime disputes and incidents in the South China Sea in recent years.

The China-Vietnam Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation completed its sixth meeting in Beijing in May, vowing to properly handle disputed issues.

Tho said there has been frequent interaction at the national and local levels between the two nations, with more than 250 visits taking place in 2012.

Along with growing intimacy at the political level, the enormous increase in trade and investment between the two sides has "amazed" the diplomat.

"In 1991, the year the two countries normalized their diplomatic ties, bilateral trade stood at only $30 million," Tho said. The figure rose to about $41 billion in 2012, which Tho described as an immense achievement.

Despite challenges to both countries' economies, in the first four months of this year the bilateral trade value continued to increase, reaching $14.3 billion, an increase of 20.6 percent year-on-year, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The two countries aim to increase the annual figure to $60 billion by 2015, and Tho expressed confidence that this goal will be achieved.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/20/2013 page4)