China’s Xi meets Vietnam PM and party chief

(5 Nov 2015) Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements on Thursday covering party-to-party relations, investment, infrastructure and culture. A bank loan worth 200 million dollars (US) from the China Development Bank to the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam was also agreed. Xi arrived in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, as the two countries seek to mend ties strained over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Bilateral relations between the two nations plunged to their lowest point in years following China’s parking of a giant oil rig near the Paracel Islands in an area Vietnam claims is within its exclusive economic zone. The incident sparked deadly anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracel islands, which have been under Chinese occupation since 1974. China’s massive land reclamation over the past 18 months in the South China Sea has angered countries in the r