Chinese President Xi makes state visit to Vietnam

Hanoi: Vietnam gave Chinese President Xi Jinping the red carpet treatment on Sunday at the start of a state visit, as the two communist neighbors try to broaden their economic ties and work on resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Xi and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, reviewed an honor guard and headed for talks behind closed doors. It was Xi's first overseas trip since consolidating his power at a party congress last month. Xi and US President Donald Trump, among others, just finished an Asia-Pacific economic summit in the Vietnamese coastal city of Danang. Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang said that his country wants to end disputes in the South China Sea through peaceful means. "It's our policy to settle disputes in the East Sea through peaceful negotiations and with respect for diplomatic and legal process in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," he said, referring to the South China Sea. Quang made the comments on Sunday during a joint news conference with Trump.