Three accords that define the land border between Vietnam and China came into effect yesterday.
"These legal documents have officially ended a 36-year land border settlement process between Vietnam and China," said Deputy Foreign Minister Ho Xuan Son during a ceremony to honour the agreements at the Thanh Thuy border gate in northern Ha Giang province.
"The event today is a landmark in the history of Vietnam-China relations development," he said.
"It was a pre-requisite for the building of a Vietnam-Sino border of peace, friendship, stability and durability.
The three accords would take the Vietnam-China strategic partnership and comprehensive co-operation to a higher level."
A similar ceremony was held across the border in China\'s Yunnan Province.
The three documents were signed on November 18 last year and allow for the demarcation of the border, installation of border markers and arrangement of border-gate management.
The deputy foreign minister discussed ways to implement the legal documents in the northern province of Ha Giang, after the ceremony.
They agreed to establish a Vietnam-China Joint Land Border Committee and mechanisms for the management of the border gates between the two countries.
Later, the deputy foreign minister told the Vietnam News Agency that the deployment of the three documents yesterday would further help promote economic and friendly relations between the neighbouring countries.
The documents were the lodestar for the two countries to build a border of peace, friendship, stability and co-operation, he said.
The deputy foreign minister said he was confident that the documents would make Vietnam and China "good neighbours, good friends, good comrades and good partners."
| Nearly 2,000 in place Vietnam and China share a 1,450km-long border, including 384,000km of rivers and streams. In all, 1971 marker posts have been installed, including one that accords with a Vietnam-Laos and China agreement. The markers on the road to their agreement were: November 7, 1991: a temporary agreement for the management of border disputes between Vietnam and China signed; October 19,1993: the basic principles for the management of border and territorial disputes agreed; December 30, 1999: Border Treaty signed; December 27, 2001: the first border marker installed at the Mong Cai border post between Vietnam and Dongxing, China. December 31, 2008: the Vietnam-China Joint Statement for the completion of the border demarcation and marker installation along the entire border signed November 18, 2009: three accords for demarcation of the border, installation of border markers and arrangement of border-gate management signed. |