Vietnamese naval vessels arrived in Guangdong, what’s going on?
2024-08-09
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After taking office as President, To Lin reiterated on June 11 when meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo in Hanoi that Vietnam has always regarded developing relations with China as a strategic choice and top priority of its foreign policy.
According to Xinhua News Agency, on August 7, the Vietnamese Navy's "Tran Hung Dao" missile frigate docked at a military port in Zhanjiang with the help of Chinese auxiliary ships.
The Vietnamese Navy missile frigate "Tran Hung Dao" (hull number 015) berthed at a military port in Zhanjiang with the help of Chinese auxiliary ships. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
A lot of implications can be seen from this!
According to Xinhua News Agency, after arriving at a military port in Zhanjiang, the "Tran Hsing Dao" will carry out a five-day visit and exchange activity. Hai Shu believes that this exchange activity has been determined long ago. After all, the article issued by Xinhua News Agency mentioned that the visit of the Vietnamese warship was carried out "according to the annual cooperation plan and consensus between China and Vietnam."
However, we should also note that Vietnam's political arena has just undergone some changes. That is, after Nguyen Phu Trong's death, To Lin, who had just taken office as the President of Vietnam, succeeded him as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.During this process of change, some Western observers with various mindsets have pointed out some minor details of Vietnam's behavior and believe that To Lin may abandon Nguyen Phu Trong's previous domestic and foreign policies. Putting aside these people's so-called "analysis" of Vietnam's domestic affairs, let's just talk about what they said about the relationship between Vietnam and China. How exactly is it changing? I won't go into details here.
On August 3, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Su Lin attended a press conference held by the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Xinhua News Agency/VNA
I always feel that with the visit of the Vietnamese Navy's "Tran Hung Dao" missile frigate to China, everything is self-explanatory!
Anyway, the annual cooperation plan between China and Vietnam has not changed, and the consensus should not have changed either.
During the visit of the Tran Hung Dao, the Chinese and Vietnamese navies will organize ship visits, deck receptions, cultural exchanges, joint exercises, etc. The visit aims to enhance mutual understanding and trust between the Chinese and Vietnamese navies and further deepen the friendship between the two sides.
This is certainly not the first time that the Tran Hung Dao has visited China. Looking at some previous reports, for example, in April 2019, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, the Vietnamese warship visited China and participated in various activities in Qingdao. Some friends also boarded the ship to visit during the foreign warship open day.
In recent years, the Vietnamese Navy has sent more than just the Tran Hung Dao to visit China. For example, in November 2023, its frigate Quang Trung arrived in Hong Kong for a four-day visit. During the visit, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison's Stonecutters Island Wharf was berthed. At the same time, the Malaysian Navy's patrol ship Selangor also went there. Before these two foreign warships visited Hong Kong, they conducted the "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise with our navy in Zhanjiang, where the Tran Hung Dao was berthed this time.
After the "Qi Jiguang" arrived in Vietnam, Vietnamese staff presented wreaths to our mission commander and exchanged greetings. Photo: WeChat official account of the People's Navy
Of course, as Vietnam's warships continue to visit China, China also has warships visiting Vietnam. For example, in May last year, the Chinese Navy's "Qi Jiguang" training ship arrived in Da Nang, Vietnam for a visit.
Hai Shu wants to say that the mutual visits between warships are a form of military and diplomatic interaction between the two countries, which shows that the relationship between the two countries is good. In the past few years, Chinese warships have actually visited some Western European countries, and even participated in the "Rim of the Pacific Exercise" organized by the United States. At that time, Western warships also visited important ports and cities in China.
In recent years, such situations have rarely been seen. What this shows is a change in the relationship between the West and China. The essence of this is worth savoring!
However, after the change of leadership, Vietnam still maintained mutual visits with Chinese warships, which proves from one aspect that the overall framework and pattern of Vietnam's diplomacy have not changed.
In fact, if we look back at To Lin’s speech at the press conference of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on August 3, as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, we can hear him saying, “We will not change our foreign policy,” which means that Vietnam will continue to adhere to an independent, autonomous, multilateral and diversified foreign policy. In To Lin’s words, it means “continuously increasing Vietnam’s contribution to world and regional peace and development.”
Some experts on Vietnam also said that the "bamboo diplomacy" policy formulated by Nguyen Phu Trong for Vietnam, that is, Vietnam's foreign policy should be like bamboo, "strong roots, firm body, and soft branches", adhere to principles on the country's core interests, while maintaining flexible strategies and actively developing friendly relations with countries around the world, is in line with Vietnam's current overall national interests. It is for this reason that To Lin and the current Vietnamese leadership will not change easily.
Vietnam National Assembly Building Photo: Information
It was noticed that Su Lin visited China many times when he was Minister of Public Security.
After taking office as President, To Lin reiterated on June 11 when meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo in Hanoi that Vietnam has always regarded developing relations with China as a strategic choice and top priority of its foreign policy.
Looking at Su Linzhi's statement, combined with the current military and diplomatic interactions between Vietnam and China, I always feel that the credibility of this statement is still quite high.
After all, China and Vietnam are connected by mountains and rivers, have similar cultures, and highly similar political systems. In recent years, the economic and trade relations between the two countries have become increasingly close. In the past 20 years, China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner, and Vietnam is also China's largest trading partner within ASEAN and the sixth largest trading partner in the world. This close economic and trade exchange is a win-win cooperation for both China and Vietnam. These characteristics determine that the general trend of China-Vietnam friendship will not change.
Who wants change to happen the most? Probably some Western countries outside the South China Sea. In their view, creating a rift between China and Vietnam and then taking advantage of it is a good card to play.
They just want to profit this way.
But when they saw that China-Vietnam cooperation was getting closer and closer, their so-called plan had only one way to fail!
Let’s talk about the missile frigate "Tran Hung Dao" purchased by Vietnam from Russia. The ship’s name was taken from the ancient Vietnamese hero Tran Hung Dao.
The Chen Xingdao Temple in Vietnam Photo: Video screenshot
According to the Vietnamese, Chen Xingdao was a hero who fought against the Mongol army in ancient Vietnam. According to some research, Chen Xingdao's real name was Chen Guojun, a member of the royal family of the ancient Chen Dynasty in Vietnam. As for his ancestors, they were from the Chen family of Yingtian in Shimen, Changle, Fujian, China.
It has been reported that Chen Guangjun, vice president of the Vietnam Chen Clan National Federation, led a delegation to Shimen Village, Changle in 2019 to trace their ancestors.
It is not difficult to see that China and Vietnam are not only close neighbors, but also have many kinship relations among the people. Only by friendship from generation to generation can we have a better future!
