On the evening of August 27, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính will attend the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit as a guest of the host country.
At the invitation of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will attend the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit as a guest of the host country and will conduct work in China from August 31, 2025, to September 1, 2025.
According to the plan, the 2025 SCO Summit will take place from August 31 to September 1 in Tianjin, China, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping. This is expected to be the largest summit since the organization’s founding, attracting over 20 heads of state, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin, creating a new diplomatic landscape.
The agenda is expected to focus on promoting « neighborhood diplomacy, » enhancing political, economic, and security cooperation; it also represents a model of multilateral cooperation that is becoming increasingly prominent amid the tense global geopolitical context.
Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính’s visit to China also takes place in the context of the two countries commemorating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations since the beginning of 2025 and continuing to promote high-level exchanges and contacts through various flexible forms.
Regarding trade, Vietnam maintains its position as China’s largest trading partner in ASEAN and China’s fourth-largest trading partner by national criteria (after the United States, Japan, and South Korea). The bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and China for the whole of 2024 reached $205.2 billion (an increase of 19.3%); of which, Vietnam exported $61.2 billion (a decrease of 0.2%) and imported $144 billion (an increase of 30.2%), resulting in a trade deficit of $82.8 billion (an increase of 67.9%).
In the first 7 months of 2025, the bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and China reached $136.47 billion (an increase of 21.3%); of which, Vietnam exported $35.02 billion (an increase of 7.1%) and imported $101.4 billion (an increase of 27.1%), resulting in a trade deficit of $66.4 billion (an increase of 41.1%).
Regarding investment, in 2024, China ranked first in the number of new investment projects with 955 projects, accounting for 28.3%; it ranked third in total registered capital with $4.73 billion (after Singapore and South Korea), an increase of 3.1%. In the first 7 months of 2025, China ranked first in the number of new investment projects with 695 projects, accounting for 30.83%; it ranked second in total registered capital with $2.27 billion (after Singapore), an increase of 41.6%.
Regarding tourism, in 2024, Vietnam welcomed 3.74 million Chinese visitors, an increase of 114% compared to 2023, accounting for 21.26% of the total international visitors to Vietnam, ranking second after South Korea. In the first 7 months of 2025, Vietnam welcomed over 3.1 million Chinese visitors, accounting for 25.5% of the total international visitors to Vietnam, ranking first in the total number of international visitors to the country.