On October 27, 2020, Vice Foreign Minister and Chinese Senior Official for East Asian Cooperation Affairs Luo Zhaohui held a video meeting with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of ASEAN SOM of Vietnam Nguyen Quoc Dung. They exchanged ideas on the preparation for the East Asian leaders' meetings on cooperation.

Luo Zhaohui said, China and Vietnam are friendly socialist neighbors. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam, and the leaders of the two countries have maintained close communication through telephone calls and letters, providing strategic leadership for the development of bilateral relations and regional cooperation. China is willing to work with Vietnam to implement the important consensus reached between the two leaders and steadily push forward bilateral relations.

Luo Zhaohui stressed, East Asia cooperation is at a critical stage as the world is experiencing profound changes of a kind unseen in a century, which, together with the once-in-a-century pandemic, are causing a complex and profound evolution of the regional and international situation. China supports Vietnam's rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, and is willing to cooperate with Vietnam in hosting the East Asian leaders' meetings on cooperation, pushing regional cooperation forward and releasing positive messages to the outside world: First, focus on development through cooperation and facilitate the joint fight against COVID-19 and work and production resumption. Efforts will be made to promote the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as scheduled to help East Asia's economic recovery. Second, grasp the direction for development of East Asia through cooperation. China supports the ASEAN's central status in East Asian cooperation and supports the China-ASEAN (10+1) Cooperation Mechanism, the ASEAN Plus Three (10+3) Cooperation Mechanism and the East Asia Summit, among others, in remaining committed to such effective principles as "accommodating the comfort level of all parties" and "not introducing bilateral disputes into multilateral occasions". China upholds multilateralism, opposes unilateralism and bullying practice, and works to prevent the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game from gaining the upper hand again. Third, properly address sensitive issues. China is willing to work with ASEAN countries to remove external interferences, continue to adopt the "dual-track" approach to resolve South China Sea issues properly, effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea across the board, maintain the momentum of consultations on entering into a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly maintain the regional peace and stability.

Nguyen Quoc Dung highly valued the positive progress in the comprehensive strategic cooperation between Vietnam and China, thanked China for supporting Vietnam in fulfilling its duties as the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, and said Vietnam attaches importance to China's important role in East Asian cooperation, stands up for what is called on by China and also shares the view that the meetings should be in the direction of cooperation, oppose unilateralism and deal with sensitive issues properly. Vietnam is ready to bring its chairmanship role into play to accumulate more outcomes for the meetings, promote the smooth holding of the meetings in a friendly and cooperative atmosphere, and contribute to regional peace and stability, development and prosperity. Vietnam is in favor of speeding up the consultation process on the Code of Conduct and safeguarding the ASEAN-China cooperation.