Vietnam confirmed on Thursday that top leader To Lam will visit China next week at the invitation of his counterpart Xi Jinping, his first trip abroad since becoming president.
The Communist Party chief was elected president – the number two position in Vietnamese politics – by the National Assembly on Tuesday, uniting the leadership of party and state, as Xi did in China.
Lam and his wife “will lead a high-level delegation on a state visit to China from April 14-17, 2026,” Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
An official briefed on Lam’s travel plans previously told AFP the trip would begin on April 15, saying the Vietnamese leader would meet Xi.
See also: Vietnam’s new leader To Lam meets China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing on first overseas trip
Despite rival territorial claims in the South China Sea, the two socialist states have sought to deepen already close economic ties to protect against global trade turmoil caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Both Vietnam and China get most of their oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has been largely halted because of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Xi on Tuesday congratulated the Vietnamese leader on becoming president and expressed his willingness “to work with To Lam… to continuously strengthen our respective socialist causes,” Chinese state media reported.
