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Vietnam's top leader to visit China beginning Sunday

by Reuters

   Beijing --

   Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, will make an official visit to China from
   Sunday until Aug. 20, Vietnamese government and Chinese state media
   said, cementing close ties between the Communist-run neighbors.

   On his first foreign trip since his appointment this month as general
   secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Lam is expected to meet
   Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials.

   Despite their economic and trade links, the two nations occasionally
   clash over boundaries in the energy-rich South China Sea, a key
   waterway claimed by Beijing almost in its entirety, despite overlapping
   claims by several nations.

   Lam's visit follows an invitation from Xi and his wife, Vietnam's
   government said in a statement on Thursday that confirmed an earlier
   [1]Reuters report on the visit.

   China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, with two-way trade in the
   first seven months of this year rising 25% from a year earlier to $112
   billion, Vietnamese customs data shows.

   Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson
   Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's
   largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as
   international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000
   newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

References

   1. https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N3JZ07I&linkedFromStory=true