HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam’s top leader To Lam will visit China next week in his first foreign trip since his appointment as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party earlier in August, three officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The move would confirm the close ties between the two communist-run neighbours, which have well developed economic and trade relations despite occasionally clashing over boundaries in the energy-rich South China Sea, a crucial commercial waterway that Beijing claims almost in its entirety – irking several countries in the region.
Lam, who is also the state president of the Southeast Asian nation, is planning to arrive in China on Aug. 18. He will meet with President Xi Jinping and other officials over the following two days, said two Vietnamese officials and one Hanoi-based diplomat, declining to be identified as the trip has not been officially announced.
The Chinese and Vietnamese foreign…
