On October 9, 2004, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who accompanied Premier Wen Jiabao on an official visit to Vietnam, briefed the correspondents accompanying the delegation about Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Vietnam and attending of the fifth ASEM Summit at Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam.

Li said that from October 6 to 9 Premier Wen Jiabao paid an official visit to Vietnam and attended the fifth ASEM Summit on invitation. Within 70 hours, Premier Wen participated in altogether 40 activities and conducted broad exchanges with the leaders of Vietnam and those of other Asian and European countries present at the Summit. As an efficient and effective diplomatic activity, his visit achieves the following major results:

I. During the visit, Premier Wen and Vietnamese leaders reached wide consensus on maintaining and developing bilateral ties. Wen highly complimented the relations between the two countries, and especially pointed out that consolidating and developing China-Vietnam good-neighborly friendship constitutes the supreme common interest of the two sides, which enables the two countries to concentrate on their economic construction respectively and is conducive to peace and development in Asia and the world as well. Common consensus is the priority and cooperation is the mainstream of China-Vietnam ties. Guided by the principle of "long-term stability, orientation to the future, good-neighborliness and friendship and all-round cooperation", both sides should give top priority to the fundamental and long-term interest of the two countries, try their utmost to maintain friendship and resolve differences through consultation and mutual understanding and accommodation. The leaders of Vietnam totally agree with the opinions of Premier Wen on the development of bilateral relations, emphasizing that development of friendly relations and all-round cooperation with China are the basic and long-term foreign policy of Vietnam. Vietnam will unswervingly follow the one-China policy, resolutely oppose any form of "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and refrain from establishing official relations with Taiwan. Both sides fully acknowledged the achievements of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and expressed the determination to adopt concrete measures to increase bilateral trade volume to more than US$10 billion by 2010. They also noted that the two governments should support the implementation of already established cooperative projects and discuss new ways to enhance mutually beneficial collaboration. Both parties also signed a series of detailed cooperation documents. They unanimously agreed to speed up the land boundary survey, jointly push forward the follow-up implementation of the two agreements concerning the Beibu Bay and build the boundary between China and Vietnam into ties of friendship, stability and cooperation. During the visit, Premier Wen also attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Vietnam-China Friendship Palace which was assisted by China and serves as a symbol of the friendship between the two countries. The visit achieved the goal of consolidating good-neighborly friendship, strengthening mutual political trust and deepening all-round cooperation.

II. The fifth ASEM Summit is held in the context of complex international situation and positive changes in the regional situation of Asia and Europe. The Summit, being expanded for the first time since its establishment, opens a new stage in the cooperation between Asia and Europe. The Summit adopted such documents as the Chairman's Statement for the Fifth ASEM Summit, the Hanoi Declaration on Closer ASEM Economic Partnerships and the ASEM Declaration on Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations which is jointly initiated by China and France. It is the first time for Premier Wen Jiabao to attend the ASEM Summit, which has drawn wide attention. The active participation and constructive role of the Chinese delegation are highly valued and complimented by all parties present at the Summit. Premier Wen delivered an important speech entitled "Strengthening Dialogue and Cooperation; Deepening Partnership" to the Summit, comprehensively explaining the policies and positions of China on issues of promoting Asia-Europe political dialogue, economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchange, which well directed the whole meeting and achieved sound results. The remarks of Wen on cultural diversity and dialogue among civilizations won heated response from all the participants. Leaders present at the Summit expressed their support for China's position and their appreciation of the charm of Chinese culture. They also emphasized the great significance of dialogue among civilizations by citing their successful cultural exchanges with China. The initiatives of China to hold the "Asia-Europe Political Parties and Youth Organizations Leaders' Forum "and the "Asia-Europe Trade and Investment Fair" are both adopted by the Summit. As one of the countries which propose the largest number of follow-up activities for ASEM, China has strongly supported the tangible cooperation between the two continents.

III. During the Summit, Premier Wen met with the leaders of Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Estonia and other countries and contacted the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Japan both inside and outside the Summit venue, exchanging views on bilateral ties and international issues of concern. Many leaders noted that China is gaining an increasingly important position and that to know China is a prerequisite to understand the world. They expressed hope to expand bilateral exchanges and raise bilateral cooperation to new levels.

IV. Premier Wen took various opportunities to introduce China's internal and foreign policies and further demonstrated the international image of China as a peace-loving, cooperative, open and responsible country. In addition to meetings and talks, Premier Wen also accepted multiple interviews of Chinese and foreign correspondents, briefing them on China's efforts to improve its socialist market economic system and its energy resource and foreign exchange policies, emphasizing that China will adhere to the road of peaceful development, continue deepening reform and expanding opening up and faithfully fulfill its relevant accession commitments to the WTO.

As a specific showcase of China's foreign policy of good-neighborliness and peace, the visit of Premier Wen greatly contributes to the mutually beneficial cooperative relations between China and other countries in Asia and Europe. Just as Premier Wen pointed out in his extempore address at the Summit, Asia and Europe are two big continents, but in a sense they are the same plate and enjoy thousand of years of mutual exchanges and learning experiences from each other.

At last, Li Zhaoxing said that with the constant development of China's strategic partnership with ASEAN and the EU, China will continue to strengthen all-round cooperation with countries in the rest of Asia and in Europe and make greater contributions to the peace and development in the two continents and the world as well.