The construction of transport connectivity has always been an important factor restricting regional development. The year 2023 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. The two countries have witnessed increasingly close exchanges at various levels, jointly built the Belt and Road, strengthened the synergy of development strategies, tapped each other's advantages, and accelerated practical cooperation in infrastructure, smart customs, green energy and other fields. During his recent visit to China, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Thien expressed the hope of building a new high-speed railway connecting China and Vietnam to facilitate the cross-border flow of goods and promote economic development.

With the closer economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN, as well as the demonstration effect of the opening of the China-Laos railway, it has had an impact on relevant countries, and the rapid growth of bilateral trade volume has realistic demands and development prospects for logistics transportation, and it is urgent to speed up the construction of transportation infrastructure such as railways.

From May 29 to 31, the Vietnamese Minister of Transport and other officials led a team to visit China, where seven bilateral meetings were held in just three days, and meetings and talks were held with the Ministry of Transport of China, the National Railway Administration, China Communications Group, CRRC, China Railway Group, China Railway Construction and China Railway, and other ministries and central enterprises, actively cooperating with China in docking railways. The Vietnamese Prime Minister's visit to China this time has put forward the vision of building a high-speed railway between China and Vietnam, hoping to further tap the potential of railway transport efficiency between the two countries, accelerate the border standard gauge railway connectivity, and promote the opening and upgrading of ports and facilities connectivity.

Vietnam's territory is extremely narrow and long, with a length of about 1,650 kilometers from north to south and only 50 kilometers at the narrowest point from east to west. The terrain of the country is S-shaped. Most of its existing railways are meter-gauge railways left by French colonists, which cannot be connected with the standard railways of China and other neighboring countries, which is not conducive to Vietnam's foreign expansion of economic and trade activities. In addition, the current global economic downturn, Vietnam's exports to the West significantly reduced, want to develop is inseparable from the Chinese market; In June 2023, its neighbor Vietnam and China established a railway opened to traffic, the China-Laos railway is driving economic and trade development, next, the China-Laos railway will also be included in the scope of development, and will also be linked with the China-Europe railway, the western land and sea new corridor, so that Vietnam is eager to reach railway cooperation with China.

Noting that China is a world power and a close friend and neighbor of Vietnam, the sustained development of long-term, stable and sound Vietnam-China relations has always been the strategic choice and top priority of the Vietnamese Party and government, Pham praised the large-scale and high-quality investment of Chinese enterprises in Vietnam and hoped that more exchanges between the two countries, especially in the railway industry, will contribute to the resilient social foundation of bilateral relations.To promote regional and world cooperation and development. Editor/Xu Shengpeng