Vietnam yesterday sent a high-ranking delegation of Vietnamese Communist Party officials and Cabinet ministers to China, as the nations seek to mend relations strained by the giant northern neighbor’s deployment of an oil rig last year in disputed waters.
The four-day trip was led by Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, Vietnamese Minister of Defense Phung Quang Thanh and Vietnamese Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang, the party said in a brief statement on its Web site.
The Communist Party’s Nhan Dan newspaper said in a front page editorial that Trong’s visit “creates favorable conditions” to resolve problems between the nations, although it did not mention the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
In May last year, relations between the communist neighbors plunged to its lowest point in years after China parked a giant oil rig near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which are also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
The incident triggered a near breakdown in ties and sparked the risk of a naval standoff as well as widespread anti-China demonstrations in Vietnam that turned violent and left at least four Chinese nationals dead.
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