Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong vowed to further strengthen bilateral ties, during a meeting in Hanoi Wednesday.

Xi, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, extended to Trong the warm and sincere greetings of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The Chinese vice president also congratulated Trong on his successful visit to China in October this year.

Xi said: "China-Vietnam friendship is the common treasure created and nurtured by our leaders of the older generations."

"We should cherish the friendship," he said.

He recalled the major contributions of late Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) to the friendship between China and Vietnam, saying the normalization of bilateral ties in the past two decades showed the friendship between the two countries would last from generation to generation as long as both sides persisted in the principle of friendship, cooperation and mutual benefit.

The two countries should properly handle their divergence and contradictions in a positive way and based on the principle of prioritizing the friendship and development of the two countries so as to safeguard stability in the region, the Chinese vice president said.

He said the two sides should further promote the development of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partership, enhance mutual trust and communication, deepen economic, trade, military and law enforcement cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit to achieve the goal of common development.

He said China and Vietnam should increase people-to-people exchanges, particularly youth union exchanges, and further expand cooperation in science, technology, culture, health and media sectors.

He called on both sides to implement the principles and agreements reached between China and Vietnam during Trong's recent visit to China and properly handle disputes to steadily develop the China-Vietnam comprehensive stragetic cooperative partnership.

"My visit this time aims to do some positive work in this regard," he said.

Trong thanked Chinese President Hu Jintao's warm greetings and asked Xi to extend his sincere greetings to Hu and other Chinese party and state leaders.

Trong said Vietnam attached importance to and highly regarded Xi's visit, believing it would help consolidate the traditional friendship between Vietnam and China.

The deep-rooted friendship between Vietnam and China was established by the revolutionaries of the older generations of the two countries, Trong said.

He said the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government had provided Vietnam valuable human resources and goods during the country's fight against invasion and its construction period.

"We have also learned and drawn a lot of good experiences from China's reform and opening to the outside world drive," he said. "The Communist Party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese government and people will never forget this."

Trong said the recent 11th CPV National Congress had made the development of friendly and cooperative ties with China Hanoi's strategic foreign policy and a top priority in the country's foreign relations policy.

Under the current fast-changing world situation, "both sides should strengthen exchanges, enhance mutual trust, expand cooperation from the strategic and long-term point of view to promote the steady development of the bilateral ties," he said.

The Chinese vice president is visiting Vietnam at the invitation of the CPV Central Committee and Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan

Vietnam is the first leg of Xi's Asia tour. He will also pay an official visit to Thailand.