The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government attach importance to Sino-Vietnamese relations and will work with Vietnam to raise their traditional friendship and overall cooperation to a new high, said senior CPC official Zeng Qinghong in Beijing Wednesday.  

Zeng, a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese vice president, made the remarks at a meeting with Tran Dinh Hoan, a member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat and director of the Organization Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

Zeng said both sides should continue to enrich the bilateral relationship in the principles of building friendship and partnership with neighbors and in the spirit of enhancing mutual trust and facing up to the future, so as to ensure the two countries and their peoples remain good neighbors, friends, comrades and partners forever.

Zeng said the relations between the two parties and the two countries have continued to advance in recent years under the guidance of the principles of long-term and stable cooperation.

Hoan said the Vietnamese side thinks highly of the CPC's efforts to build socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the CPV will further substantiate the consensus reached between leaders of the two parties and strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields so as to jointly consolidate and develop the existing traditional friendship between the two sides.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2004)