Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam signed the Treaty of Land Border between China
and Vietnam in Hanoi on December 31, 1999 on behalf of their respective
countries. With the signing of the treaty, all outstanding issues relating to
the land border between China and Vietnam have been resolved. Among those who
attended the signing ceremony were Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and
Wang Yi, head of the Chinese delegation for China-Vietnam land border
negotiations and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister.
Prior to the signing ceremony, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai met with Chinese
Foreign Minister Tang. At the meeting, Tang said he and Comrade Nguyen Manh Cam
had officially signed the Treaty of Land Border between China and Vietnam, thus
having fulfilled the glorious task assigned by the two countries' leaders.
Recalling all rounds of negotiations on land border between the two countries,
Tang attributed the removal of numerous difficulties, the complete settlement of
remaining disputes and the timely signing of the treaty, first and foremost, to
the very attention and guidance given by leaders of the two parties and
countries. He also attributed the success to the consistent efforts made by the
two countries' delegations and working groups in charge of land border
negotiations. China and Vietnam are close neighbors, and to bring peace, amity,
cooperation and stability along the land border between the two countries into
the 21st century conforms to the common aspirations of the two peoples and
serves the fundamental interest of the two countries, Tang said. It will also
contribute significantly to regional peace and stability.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Khai described December 30, 1999 as a red-letter day
when China and Vietnam officially signed the Land Border Treaty, fulfilling the
task assigned by the General Secretaries of the two parties. It was a big event
of great historic significance in the relations between Vietnam and China. It
was his strong belief that the event would contribute to further promoting the
friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries well into the 21st
century.
Foreign Minister Tang conveyed the warm regards from Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji
to Prime Minister Khai.
Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Tang also met with Vietnamese Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam.
On the morning of the very day, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wang Yi and
Vietnamese Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Khoan, head of the Vietnamese
delegation for negotiations, reviewed land border negotiations between the two
countries and initialed the land border treaty.
Vietnam and China sign landmark border treaty (News)
HANOI, Dec 30 (AFP) - Vietnam and China
signed an historic 11th-hour land border treaty here Thursday, more than two
decades after the two communist neighbours clashed in early 1979.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan
inked the accord with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Manh Cam in the
International Centre in a signing ceremony attended by diplomats, journalists
and government officials.
"This
is a crucial event marking a new milestone in the development of our bilateral
relations,"a beaming Cam said.
The treaty fulfilled a mutual pledge to
reach an agreement before 2000, first mooted by then Vietnamese Communist Party
general secretary Do Muoi during a visit to Beijing in 1997, and reiterated by
his successor, Le Kha Phieu.
The
agreement settles all outstanding border disputes along the two countries'
common 1,200 kilometre (740 mile) border, eight years after normal relations
were reestablished in 1991, ending more than 11 years of diplomatic frost
following a bloody border clash in February-March 1979.
"Facts show once again that China
and Vietnam are fully capable of properly resolving issues left over from
history,"Tang said at the signing where he embraced his Vietnamese couterpart
to a round of applause.
The border deal is geopolitically
significant as the porous border sees more than one billion dollars worth of
illegal trade each year.
More importantly, it caps a steady
improvement in relations with China.
"This
is a very positive sign in the development of Sino Vietnamese relations, and
shows that China has been making great gains across the board"with its
neighbours, said Carl Thayer, a professor and expert in Sino-Vietnamese
relations at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu. Thayer
also said the treaty"balanced out"China's refusal to sign a code of conduct
proposed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at its November
summit in Manila.
Another
interpretation of the agreement is that China and Vietnam have moved closer,
while rapprochement with the United States appears to have stalled.
Although
Hanoi and Washington agreed in principle on a bilateral trade pact in July,
Vietnam shyed away from ratifying it, partly out of deference to China, analysts
say.
"This
shows that China is gaining on the United States in the race for influence in
Southeast Asia,"said one Asian ambassador, who noted cozying up to China was a
good way for Communist Party General
Secretary Le Kha Phieu to assure his support among conservatives in the
communist elite.
From China's point of view, the deal is
also a way to improve its influence in ASEAN by showing it has negotiated in
good faith, the ambassador said.
China and Vietnam are also on track to
conclude a maritime treaty covering the delineation of the Gulf of Tonkin in
2000, a border committee official told AFP.
However, the two sides have never set up
a formal scheme of negotiations to discuss overlapping claims in the South China
Sea, including the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands.
Hanoi
says the area lies on its continental shelf as defined by international law and
Beijing says it lies within its large claims based on its sovereignty of the
Spratly and Paracel island chains. Chinese
foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue in Beijing earlier Thursday described
the agreement as a major event in the history of bilateral relations"and
a"major contribution to peace and stability in the region."
"Next year, the two sides will
continue their efforts so as to consult with each other on problems of other
territorial disputes and will try to reach an agreement in the year 2000,"she
said.
Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and
the Philippines also lay claim to all or part of the Spratly chain, which
straddles vital shipping lanes and is believed to contain rich oil and gas
reserves.
