Smoother waters? China and Vietnam vow to ‘better’ navigate South China Sea disputes

Beijing and Hanoi have bolstered their commitment to demarcation talks over a contested stretch of water in the South China Sea, pledging to “better” navigate bilateral frictions in the area, according to a joint communique. The document also said the countries’ ruling communist parties had agreed to shore up each other’s leadership at home with the adoption of a new five-year action plan. Published on Friday as To Lam, Vietnam’s top leader, wrapped up his four-day visit to China, the communique said both sides “need to better manage and actively resolve disagreements at sea” while safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea, which Hanoi refers to as the East Sea. “Both sides agreed … to refrain from actions that could complicate the situation or expand disputes, thereby maintaining stability at sea,” it said. China and Vietnam would “actively” seek fundamental and long-term solutions to their maritime issues acceptable to both countries through friendly consultations in line with international law, it added. The language echoed that of a joint statement issued in April last year during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vietnam. Beijing and Hanoi are rival claimants to some features in the South China Sea, along with Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei, among others. Among those features is the Paracel Islands, which China calls the Xisha Islands, and Vietnam the Hoang Sa Islands. China took full control of the Paracels in 1974 after a naval battle with South Vietnam, whose government collapsed the following year. Both Beijing and Hanoi are engaged in land-reclamation activities that have sparked diplomatic protests, but not at the level of confrontation prompted by China’s territorial disagreements with the Philippines. The communique marked the seventh joint statement that Beijing and Hanoi have released in the past three-plus years, indicating closer high-level exchanges and a wish to keep maritime disputes from jeopardising their overall ties. Echoing language from a year ago, it said the countries would proceed with talks on delimiting waters outside the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin, known in China as the Beibu Gulf, and on maritime cooperation for mutual development, aiming for “substantive progress”. However, the latest round of discussions on both issues dates to December 2024. Back in 2000, China and Vietnam reached an agreement on delimiting the gulf. Then, in 2024, Beijing officially announced a new baseline for its territorial sea in the northern part of the gulf. Hanoi followed in 2025 with a formal declaration establishing Vietnam’s own territorial sea baseline across the gulf. The two countries remain in dispute over waters beyond the mouth of the gulf. In 2012, negotiations began on demarcation for that area, which is near the contested Paracels. Last month, Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said Hanoi “resolutely opposes” China’s land-reclamation activities at Antelope Reef in the Paracels. Beijing has rapidly expanded the reef into a major artificial land mass. Days later, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded by saying that “necessary construction on our own territory is aimed at improving living and working conditions on the islands and growing the local economy”. Despite a lack of headway in negotiations regarding the waters beyond the Gulf of Tonkin’s mouth, the countries have conducted multiple joint patrols in the gulf over the past two years and held several rounds of fisheries cooperation talks. In this week’s joint statement, Beijing and Hanoi restated their commitment to “actively expand cooperation in less sensitive maritime areas and enhance coordination in search and rescue at sea”. And during Lam’s meeting with Xi in Beijing on Wednesday, the two “agreed to properly resolve differences” between their countries, according to Hanoi’s statement about the talks. The leaders also agreed that the communist parties of China and Vietnam should strengthen solidarity and improve strategic trust amid what was described as a complicated international situation. Xi told Lam that “defending the socialist system and the ruling position of the communist party is the greatest common strategic interest” of the two parties, according to state news agency Xinhua. During Lam’s visit, China and Vietnam signed a party-to-party cooperation plan for the 2026–2030 period and a memorandum of understanding between the parties’ respective organisation departments for the same time frame, as part of a broader package of 32 documents. This included a cooperation agreement between the diplomatic arm of China’s Communist Party and Vietnam’s foreign ministry. Meanwhile, Hanoi “expressed its readiness to maintain exchanges on the possibility of becoming a partner of the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation]”, the joint communique said, referring to the regional political, security and economic group. It marked the first time such wording had appeared in a bilateral statement between the countries, suggesting they were doubling down on forging a stronger security engagement. During a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told then-Vietnamese foreign minister Bui Thanh Son that Beijing “supports Vietnam in joining the big family of the SCO at an early date”. That came just one month after Hanoi was formally designated a “partner country” of the China-backed Brics, an association of major emerging national economies.

Smoother waters? China and Vietnam vow to ‘better’ navigate South China Sea disputes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Joint communique indicates wish to keep maritime disputes from jeopardising ties and caps To Lam’s trip

Joint communique indicates wish to keep maritime disputes from jeopardising ties and caps To Lam’s trip