By Liz Lee
BEIJING, April 17 (Reuters) - China offered to boost ties with Vietnam on rail infrastructure, from loans and technology to training, as its neighbour's top leader, To Lam, wound up a visit on Friday that featured high-speed train journeys across the country's north and southwest.
China will guide enterprises to join in railway construction projects in Vietnam, according to a joint statement issued by its foreign ministry that hailed the effort as a "new bright spot" in strategic ties.
That echoed a call for more transport and logistics links by President Xi Jinping and Lam when they met on Wednesday.
The neighbours should maintain clarity on strategy and prioritise political security, Xi told Lam, who was making his first trip overseas since he was elected Vietnam's president last week.
"Infrastructure, and rail in particular, is emerging as one of China's clearest priorities in Vietnam," said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
Chinese state media showed photographs of Lam making a 10-hour journey by high-speed rail from the capital, Beijing, in the north to Nanning in the southwestern region of Guangxi bordering Vietnam, a day before his return to Hanoi.
He also rode high-speed rail on Tuesday to visit Xiongan, a city project in the northern province of Hebei.
Vietnam is a partner in China's flagship Belt and Road Initiative for transport links between Asia and Europe, with many projects funded through loans and investments by Chinese state-owned institutions.
The 32 pacts signed this week included deals for a railway feasibility study and efforts to boost related talent capacity, the official news agency Xinhua said.
The real test of the pacts will be in implementation, where political will has been clearly demonstrated, Giang added.
SECURITY MATTERS
Ties are warming as Vietnam shifts towards a governance model that increasingly mirrors China's, and Lam's recent consolidation of power also resembles that of its leadership.
Their law enforcement and security agencies will work more closely to counter terrorism and transnational crimes as well as exchange information and details of efforts to fight interference and separatism, they said in the statement.
They will also strengthen ties in fields from aviation and technology including 5G and big data, to new energy and critical minerals.
Vietnam's budget airline Vietjet signed a finance lease pact this week with China's SPDB Financial Leasing for 10 C909 narrow body aircraft from Shanghai-based COMAC.
(Reporting by Liz Lee; Additional reporting by Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez)
