Xi calls for closer ties with Vietnam

BEIJING - China and Vietnam should handle their differences properly and promote the steady development of their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Vice-President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, in the first visit to Vietnam by a member of China's top leadership since the election of Vietnam's new leadership early this year.

During his meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, in Hanoi, Xi said China and Vietnam should work together to implement the consensus and agreements reached by the two sides when Trong visited Beijing in October.

During Trong's visit to Beijing, the two sides issued a joint statement and agreed not to let maritime disputes affect relations.