Will Paracels dispute overshadow China and Vietnam’s drive for stronger strategic ties?

China and Vietnam are to hold their first high-level ministerial talks under a new platform next week as they seek to cement their strategic alignment despite heightened tensions over Beijing’s new land reclamation works in the disputed South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong and Defence Minister Dong Jun will arrive in Vietnam on Sunday to meet their respective counterparts for talks that will run until Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

It will be the first meeting of its kind under the so-called 3+3 format announced last April, when President Xi Jinping met Vietnamese leader To Lam in Hanoi.

China has previously used a similar mechanism – featuring foreign and defence officials – for talks with neighbours such as South Korea and Indonesia.

The expanded mechanism including the security chiefs has been widely seen as a sign of stronger strategic alignment, particularly after Lam, himself a former public security minister, took over as party chief in July 2024 following the sudden death of his long-serving predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong.

China took full control of the Paracels, which are claimed by Hanoi, after a conflict with South Vietnam in 1974.

South China Morning Post