Vietnam to host China, EU leaders in coming weeks amid US tariff risks, sources say

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio

HANOI (Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping and European Union leaders are set to visit Vietnam in the next few weeks in a swirl of diplomatic activity amid growing risks from U.S. trade tariffs, officials said.

China, the EU and Vietnam run very large trade surpluses with the United States and have all faced new tariffs from Donald Trump’s administration, with more expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Xi Jinping is expected to meet Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi on April 14, two Vietnamese officials with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters, in what would be his second visit to the country in less than 18 months.

Xi’s multi-day visit to Vietnam is part of a wider trip to Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and Malaysia, according to two diplomats.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it had no information to share when asked about the trip at a news briefing on Monday.

Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Both Vietnamese sources said that among issues to be discussed are railways linking northern Vietnam with China which the two countries have agreed to develop to boost connections and trade.

One source said Xi’s trip would take place amid “strategic adjustments by major countries,” citing Trump’s shifting policies as the main change.

Vietnam is also in the process of approving the use of China’s COMAC planes, with an industrial source in Vietnam saying that a formal green light could coincide with Xi’s visit.

That could pave the way for the leasing and potentially even the purchase of Chinese commercial jets by Vietnamese airlines.

Just days before Xi’s visit, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to meet Vietnamese leaders on April 9, followed by EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic, according to official programmes.

French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen are also planning to visit Hanoi in the following weeks, European officials and diplomats have said.

“The tide of tariffs and export controls is rising… We want to create new opportunities to trade and invest with trusted partners,” von der Leyen told top officials from Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN in a video message when they were gathered last month in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Phuong Nguyen and Khanh Vu; additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing)