Newsline: China's top diplomat discusses rail link with Vietnam

diplomaticbriefing

Dec 1

China and Vietnam are working on a possible significant upgrade of their underdeveloped rail links to boost a line that crosses Vietnam's rare earths heartland and reaches the country's top port in the north, senior officials and diplomats said. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/china-vietnam-consider-rail-link-through-rare-earths-heartland-2023-12-01/) The talks are part of preparations for a possible visit to Hanoi in coming weeks by Chinese President Xi Jinping, officials and diplomats said, which would further confirm Vietnam's increasingly strategic role in global supply chains as major powers including the United States vie to gain influence there. The two countries agreed to boost trade ties and promote railways connections, according to a readout published on the Vietnamese government portal on Friday after China's top diplomat Wang Yi met Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had previously called for the upgrade of the railway linking Kunming in southern China to Vietnam's port city of Haiphong in a statement released last month, after China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao made a rare visit to Vietnam. Chinese officials have stressed the importance of boosting infrastructure connectivity with their southern neighbour. Vietnam already has rail connections to China, but the system is old with limited capacity on the Vietnam side. The two systems are also not interoperable at the moment, meaning trains have to stop at the border where passengers and goods are transferred to domestic services. The upgraded railway would pass through the region where Vietnam has its largest deposits of rare earths, of which China is by far the world's biggest refiner. Vietnam is trying to build its own industry in what is seen as a possible challenge to China's dominance, but what appear as internal fights have cast a shadow over these efforts.