China, Vietnam see progress in border talks

Jan 21, 2007, 4:45 GMT

Beijing - China and Vietnam achieved 'positive results' in their latest round of talks aimed at resolving long-standing border disputes, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Sunday.

The two sides will speed up and complete before the end of 2008 the process of demarcation and erection of markers along their 1,400-kilometre land border, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

They agreed to 'carefully investigate joint exploitation' of the South China Sea, after three days of talks ended on Saturday in the southern city of Nanning, close to China's border with Vietnam.

China and Vietnam will also push forward negotiations on the demarcation and joint use of the maritime area at the entrance to the Beibu (Tonkin) Gulf, the statement said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and his Vietnamese counterpart Vu Dung led the delegations in the 13th round of border negotiations.

China has become Vietnam's largest trading partner since relations were normalized in 1991.

Some of the land disputes date back to 1979, four years after communist north Vietnam defeated the U.S.-backed south, when China and Vietnam clashed along Vietnam's northern border after Vietnamese troops marched into Cambodia to topple the Beijing-supported Khmer Rouge.

Tensions still flare occasionally over the Spratley and Paracel Islands, two archipelagos in the South China Sea that are thought to be rich in gas and oil deposits.