On Dec.24, 2000, Assistant Foreign Minister Wang Yi, head of Chinese delegation for China-Vietnam governmental boundary negotiations, and Mr. Le Cong Phung, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam and head of Vietnamese delegation for China-Vietnam governmental boundary negotiations, initialed in Beijing the Agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the Delimitation of the Territorial Sea, Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf of the Two Countries in Beibu Bay and the Agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Fishery Cooperation in Beibu Bay.

The Beibu Bay is a semi-enclosed sea surrounded by land territories of China and Vietnam and China's Hainan Island. The negotiations between China and Vietnam on the delimitation of the Beibu Bay have been going on for years. Fishermen of the two countries have enjoyed traditional cooperative relations in the Beibu Bay. The fishery arrangement is a important component of the delimitation of the Beibu Bay.

China and Vietnam will officially sign the two agreements when Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong visits China from Dec.25.